Donington Park

Jensen Race Team headed to Leistershire’s Donington Park for round 2 of the HSCC Historic Formula Ford Championship hoping for a clean run and some valuable seat time for Jacques. Complete with a fresh engine after the failure at Snetterton, Jacques quickly got to grips with the car and circuit, and despite no testing managed to secure a strong 3rd place in timed qualifying, posting a 1:17.697. Race 1 got under way on Saturday evening in warm, sunny conditions and Jacques was up into second place at the first corner. From here, a race long battle commenced with Christian Goller (Lola T202), Gislain Genecand (Crossle 16F) and at times Daniel Stanzl (Crossle 16F) joined the mix. Meanwhile, Benn Simms (Jomo JMR7) was in a race of his own at the front, with a considerable pace advantage over the rest of the field. The race ended in just 14 minutes after a couple of cars spun off the circuit, bringing out the red flags. At this time, Jacques was in second place, a slightly unexpected but fantastic result at this point in the season.

Race 2 took place on Saturday afternoon in slightly cooler, but still dry conditions. Due to time constraints, a “rolling start” was utilised. From the front row of the grid, Jensen fell back to 3rd place before turn 1, with Goller drafting pole sitter Simms. From here, Jensen sat patiently behind Goller in order to work together and keep the tow from Simms. At the start of lap 3, the safety car boards came out, bunching the pack up. The restart saw Jacques caught napping slightly on the and the front 2 broke away briefly, however he managed to catch back up by the end of the lap. As Simms managed to break the tow, Jensen and Goller traded places. Jacques was momentarily up to second place before Gillian joined the party and pushed him back down to fourth. Jacques’ car then jumped out of gear at the old hairpin, causing a snap of oversteer and loss of momentum. Some side by side action at the craner curves followed, but again the race ended prematurely under red flag conditions, with Jacques crossing the line in fourth place.

Jacques stated, “It was a great weekend’s racing. Race 1 was particularly special and the podium was slightly unexpected. I didn’t race to my full potential in race 2 and was a bit unlucky with some gearbox issues and catching back markers at an unfortunate place, but overall it’s been a cracking weekend! Thanks to my friends and family for all the support!” Jensen Race Team head to Cadwell Park in 2 weeks time for Round 3 of the championship.