Hill junior to follow in family's tyre tracks

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Thursday, October 01, 2009
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This is Bath

Formula Ford is the focus of attention at the Castle Combe Circuit's Wiltshire College-backed Carnival meeting on Saturday.

And the final meeting of the 2009 season sees a famous name following in his family's footsteps.

Josh Hill, grandson of former double world champion Graham and son of world champion Damon, competes in the final round of the MSA Formula Ford championship of Great Britain, a traditional breeding ground for aspiring Formula 1 drivers.

Both Graham and Damon competed at Castle Combe in the early days of their careers, Graham in a C-type Jaguar in 1955 and Damon in a Formula Ford race in 1985.

Graham's drive at Castle Combe was a reward for his services to his then employer, Dan Margulies, for whom he was a mechanic. It was a 15-lap Free Formula race and was only Hill's third race.

Damon was competing in his first full season of car racing in the same championship as his son. Driving a Van Diemen RF85 powered by an engine built by Nelson engines of Calne, Damon finished sixth behind Perry McCarthy and ahead of the likes of Johnny Herbert, Mark Blundell and Eddie Irvine.

Josh will be driving a Mygale for the Jamun Racing team and will have to contend with the formidable experience of the Gloucester-based Kevin Mills Racing team, who have engineered numerous Castle Combe championship titles and will be running three cars at this event.

Making his debut appearance in the championship is Bridgwater's Felix Fisher, currently second in the circuit's own Formula Ford 1600 championship and leader of Class B. Fisher will have a busy day, defending his positions in the local championship with his Swift SC92 and swapping to an unfamiliar Juno for the British championship race.

The Carnival races for Formula Ford 1600 cars attract drivers from all over the country and beyond, Ashley Clifford coming from Majorca to drive the Dursley-based Wayne Poole Racing team's Van Diemen RF88.

Among the favourites will be Bradford on Avon's Ed Moore in his Van Diemen RF99, Saltford's Steven Jensen in the Swift SC08 and Marcus Allen in the Kevin Mills Racing Swift SC92. Chepstow's Nick Jones, the 2004 pre-90 champion, returns with a Van Diemen RF87.

The circuit's own FF1600 championship may have been decided already, with Bratton's Ben Norton crowned at the last meeting, but that is unlikely to prevent another scintillating final race from developing.

With the pressures of points scoring lifted, Norton will be even more determined to add to his four wins of the season. Trying to prevent him will be Fisher, Allen and Jensen, with Chippenham's Adam Higgins also looking for a piece of the action.

Fisher has a nine-point lead in Class B over Allen, but, with 16 potentially available, it is still a very open race to the class title.

Another of the circuit's championships already decided is the Saloon Car Championship supported by National Mobile Windscreens, with Yatton Keynell's Jason Cooper taking the honours.

He will still be wringing the neck of his Fiesta in Class D and hoping for the rain which will allow him to run at the very front of the field.

Peasedown's Olly Lewis returns with his Peugeot 106 after his big accident at the August meeting and will again push Cooper to the limit.

Laurence Kilby is the local runner in the fast but fragile Class A Mitsubishi Evo. His AJEC team-mate Guy Higgs is in with a chance of lifting the Class B title with his wayward BMW M3 should Bridgwater's Tony Dolley falter.

Reigning outright champion Will Di Claudio will be handing over his trophy but has already secured a new one for Class C honours, so can enjoy a straight battle with Yate's Nick Charles, both drivers in similar Peugeot 106s.

Attracting at least five former champions from the circuit's own Saloon Car championship, together with a number of other local names, is the Castle Combe Racing Club's Saloon Car Challenge. This two-race event includes a handicap system and a reversed grid for race two, the overall winner decided on aggregate.

Di Claudio is joined by his former team-mate and 2006 and 2007 champion Tony Hutchings from Calne in the Turnpike Racing Audi TT. Radstock's Julian Howell, the triple Class C champion from the late-90s, wheels out his amazing Mini for a rare Castle Combe outing and Ilsa Cox, the 1997 outright champion, returns with her SEAT Leon Cupra.

Another title to be settled is that for Castle Combe's Special GTs, in association with savesomemoney.info.

This is a three-way battle between Class B winner Simon Tilling, Stuart Dixon, who has already secured Class D and Trowbridge's Mark Funnell, the Class C champion for the second year running.

Funnell has a difficult, but not impossible, task to take his first outright crown.

Even if he wins his class and takes fastest lap, Tilling will still beat him by finishing fourth or higher in his class. Funnell's best chance may lie with the weather gods as torrential rain suits his road-going Exige, even with a four-wheel drive Evo of Melksham's Simon Norris as his main rival. New opposition arrives in the form of Tetbury's David Krayem with a Ginetta G50.

Unable to overhaul Tilling for Class B honours, Trowbridge's Andrew Shanley can concentrate on winning the class in his Radical Prosport to add to the four he has notched up already this year.

He may well be a contender for outright honours too, though that will depend on the performance of Bath's Guy Woodward, making his debut in Shane Marshall's 3.5-litre Jade 3. This is the last time such a big car will be allowed to compete in this championship, as from 2010 a two-litre maximum will be imposed.

Woodward will be fund raising for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Royal United Hospital but has only qualifying to familiarise himself with the car, which is more sophisticated than the Jades which he has previously raced with success at his local circuit.

Saturday's action starts at 8.45am with qualifying, racing getting under way from 11.50pm.

Admission prices are £12 for adults, £6 for OAPs, £2.50 for paddock transfer, while accompanied children under 16 are admitted free.

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