Battle of Britain at Silverstone
24.04.2005 by Harry Hogge
And so back to England for Silverstone for the Jim Walsh Trophy. Unbeaten for five seasons in FF1600 competition, Joey was red hot favourite for the crown. He was even hotter favourite after qualifying as he blitzed his way around the historic Grand Prix circuit almost a second faster than his closest challenger, Peter Dempsey.
Joey and his rivals knew that the race would be a different matter, the long straights of the GP track are made for slipstreaming, meaning slower cars can close on a lead car by using the ?hole in the air? it makes. And so it proved to be. In one of the most exciting battles seen for a long time Joey and Peter traded the lead, once four times in one lap. It was possibly one of the best wheel to wheel battles most people had ever witnessed.
Unfortunately it all went wrong when Peter tagged Joey on the penultimate lap, spinning him off at the Becketts Esses. Joey recovered to fourth, but some distance from third. Unbelievably Peter and the now in contention Gavin Wills clashed at Bridge on the final lap, putting them both out of contention and handing the lead to Ed Moore. Freed from the close attentions of Dempsey, Joey put in a blistering lap and caught Moore on the final corner. The gap decreased through Woodcote to the chequered flag, Ed crossing the line just eleven hundredths of a second ahead of Joey. ?It was probably the best race I?ve ever been in until Peter tagged me. I have never had such close racing over such a long period, it was unbelievable? For a full report go to www.FF1600.co.uk