Dan de Zille moved up into 5th position in the championship at Brands Hatch this weekend in his fight for the British Formula Ford title after three Top Ten finishes, including a podium for coming 2nd in race two.
Qualifying on Friday was incredibly close, with Dan getting closer to pole than ever before. Amazingly, the top 14 drivers were all within 1 second of each other: Dan qualified in 8th position for Race 1, a scant 0.5 off the actual pole sitter.
In Race 1, Dan gained a couple of places off the grid, quickly shifting up to 6th place, only to lose a couple of positions through gearbox selector problems till he found a way to drive round the issue, finishing where he’d started, in 8th place.
A change of set-up and some sheer determination on Sunday morning resulted in Dan flying from 7th off the start of Race 2, and he was up into 4th spot before daunting Paddock Hill Bend. Dan held 4th throughout much of the race, and was promoted to 3rd when rival Malvern received a drive-though penalty for jumping the start.
Once up to 3rd, Dan drove a faultless race, in spite of having to battle an understeering car in the closing stages . On the penultimate lap, team-mate Geoff Uhrhane spun at Clearways, allowing Dan to zip past into 2nd place to take the chequered flag.
Another good start in Race 3 elevated Dan from 7th to 5th, where he battled with McBride and Williams. Handling issues meant he struggled to keep Williams at bay, finally slipping back a slot to finish in 8th position overall.
Dan commented, “The final race was a frustrating result after this morning’s podium finish. We made yet more changes to the set-up, but it didn’t make the car any better as I was battling with understeer. We have some work to do in testing before Donington!”
Dan will be back out in the British Formula Ford counter at Donington on the 24/25th September for the penultimate rounds of the Championship.