Cadwell Park

Round 3 of the HSCC Historic Formula Ford Championship took place at the picturesque Cadwell Park Circuit in Lincolnshire on the 13th and 14th June. This was Jacques’ first time in a single seater at the notoriously technical and challenging circuit, widely known as the “mini Nurburgring”. 19 cars took to the track, a relatively small grid but one full of top class drivers. Qualifying went reasonably well, despite being stopped half way through when a car dropped oil around most of the circuit causing treacherous conditions. Despite the red flag for track cleaning, the track conditions never returned to normal, making for a hairy final few laps of qualifying. Prior to the oil spillage, Jacques posted a 1:36.667, which put him in eighth place on the grid for Race 1.

A solid start saw Jensen hold position, and the race quickly settled down with Jacques keeping the pressure on Oliver Chapman (Lola T200). A few laps in, a hard charging Matthew Wrigley (Merlyn mk11a/20) came past, from 11th on the grid. From here, Jacques was part of a 5 car train, with some excellent battles taking place for 4th to 9th place. A missed gear from Simon Toyne (Winklemann WDF2) at the mountain section allowed Jacques to re-claim 8th position, only for Jacques to return the favour a couple of laps later. By now the pack had managed to break free, leaving Jensen and Toyne to fight for 8th place. In the closing stages, Jensen slip streamed back past Toyne on the Park Straight. The race was shortly red flagged as a car found its way into the barrier in the Hall Bends section, meaning Jacques finished 8th.

Race 2 saw Jacques line up 7th on the grid. A strong launch off the line and Jensen was side by side with Gislain Genecand (Crossle 16F) into turn 1, with Jacques forced to yield position. The first few laps saw Jensen holding onto the pack in front, until a mistake at the downhill Mansfield corner saw a loss of momentum and the cars in front broke the tow. A few clean laps saw Jensen close the gap and a 3 car battle between Jensen, Wrigley and Genecand commenced, but this was short lived as the 3 cars then spread out. The closing few laps saw Jacques back on Wrigley’s gearbox as he and Genecand squabbled and slowed each other down, but unfortunately Jacques ran out of laps, crossing the finish line in 7th place.

Jensen recapped, “On paper it seems like quite a mediocre couple of races, however it was a great weekend of learning this circuit and the car. Although the grid was relatively small, the competition was fierce. We have a few issues to sort with the car for the next race at Brands Hatch, and timing is tight, so hopefully we will be on the grid and fighting for more strong results!”