Reports > Castle Combe Howards Day Easter Monday 2021
Podiums for Mitchell, Bracegirdle and Colborn at Combe
Easter Monday April 5th was clear but cold (even an occasional very light snow flurry!) and the WPR team began their 2021 season with Ben Mitchell making his Formula Ford Class A debut in Richard Hudson-Evan's Classic Auction Review backed Van Diemen RF99 that has been driven in the past to great success by Josh Fisher. Ben was joined by Steve Bracegirdle and James Colborn in their familiar Class C Van Diemens.
Qualifying went well with Ben improving on his Thursday testing times by getting in to the 1m 10s and lining up 4th and 5th on the grid for the two Formula Ford Championship races. James and Steve qualified 14th and 15th for both races just ahead of their main Class C opposition.
In Race 1 Ben made a good start to take third which he held, in a close five way battle for the lead, until Lap 7 when he dropped to fourth which he held until the finish. James made the best Class C start to lead away with Steve following in second place. The three Class C front runners ran closely together in a hard fought race with James finally finishing second and Steve third - 10th and 11th overall for a good result.
In Race 2 Ben again made a good start to take third and, running close to the pair ahead of him, maintained the place to take a well deserved podium at the end just half a second behind the winner. In Class C Steve got away ahead of James but separated from the Class C leader by a couple of Class B cars. Steve and James spent the whole race, never more than a couple of tenths apart, to finish 2nd and 3rd in Class. James was pleased to take the fastest lap for Class C cars.
Steve was also out in the two Hot Hatch series races with his Mini Cooper S and finished 20th and 19th in the two, well supported races.
