Reports > Castle Combe Grand Finals day Oct 14 2017
WPR crowned double 2017 FF champions at Combe
At Castle Combe on October 14th Josh Fisher(overall and Class A) and Steve Bracegirdle (Class C) became 2017 Formula Ford Champions for Wayne Poole Racing.
All Josh needed to do to protect his 15 point lead in the standings was to remain in sight of his nearest competitors and stay out of trouble. He qualified the Richard Hudson-Evans Van Diemen JL14 comfortably in fourth but elected to drop back at the start. He drove a steady race to finish seventh and secure the Championship. Josh and the team would like to thank Richard Hudson-Evans for his support throughout the year and Neil Barnett for supplying reliable and competitive engines.
It was a close battle for the Class C honours with the two WPR drivers, Andrew Higginbottom (in a team RF88) and Steve Bracegirdle (his own RF89) separated by only three points. In a bizarre and disappointing turn of events Andrew suffered an inner drive shaft coupling failure in practice and then the outer drive shaft failed on the out lap for the race. A thoroughly unsatisfactory end to what had been a very competitive and successful season. So it was left to Steve to complete the race without incident to take twelth place overall, win the Class and take fastest lap to become the Class C Champion.
As a small consolation Andrew was able to start the Formula Ford Carnival event later in the day and took fastest Class C lap but his bad luck continued as a hairline crack caused the core plug to fail and he was out after 7 laps.
Steve Bracegirdle (Mini Cooper S) and Graham Cox (Renault Clio) were also out in the Saloon car race finishing 20th and 17th respectively.
Many thanks to Andy Mitchelmore for the images.
