Driver: Simon Green and Lawrence Denne Car Reynard SF79 & Van Dieman RF82 Track Silverstone National Championship non championship race Champ Position n/a Report The weekend of the 31st October and 1st November 2009 saw the traditional end of season Walter Hayes Trophy meeting at Silverstone and Simon Green Motorsport was there, looking to top off a excellent debut season with good results for both Lawrence Denne in the Formula Ford 2000 race and Simon Green, who was making his return to racing after a 18 month gap and also making his single seater debut, racing Derek Watling’s Reynard SF79 in the 50km Open Wheeled Race on the Saturday and the Formula Ford 2000 on the Sunday. Not only would this going be a busy weekend as Lawrence was racing in the main 1600 Walter Hayes Trophy race and Simon Green racing but John Wilson was also racing his Simon Green Motorsport supported Royale RP27 in both the 50km Opened Wheeled race and Formula Ford 2000 race. However the first challenge of the weekend was to sort out a running problem on John Wilson’s RP27 that had developed on the Friday testing day. Once the running problem was sorted it was then time for Simon to turn his attention to his first ever qualifying session in a single seater and his first ever time driving this type of car in the wet!! However the qualifying session went extremely well for Simon and despite his inexperience in the wet and in the Reynard SF79, Simon snatched the class pole position from Oliver Thrope on the last lap of the session and 4th overall after a long battle. For the race, the rain, which had stopped before the qualifying session, did not return and the track had dried to point where it was a gamble between slick or wet tyres, as most of the track had dried but the corners at Brookland and Luffields were still extremely ‘damp’ and slippery. As the race started Simon got a brilliant start and managed to hang on to the back of the top three for the first lap and then set about trying to maintain his class lead over Thrope, which he did for the first seven laps until Thrope passed. Simon then took the decision to try and follow Thrope for the next two laps until a mid race spin saw Thrope pull out just over a 4 second lead over Green. After the spin Simon attempted to close the gap between himself and Thrope, setting the class fastest lap in the process but was unable to catch Thorpe. As Thrope took the class win and finished 5th overall, Simon finished just over 4.1 seconds behind Thorpe. Also in this race John Wilson who had qualified in 9th overall suffered a first corner spin but managed to claw his way back up to 15th overall after losing nearly half a lap as the car stalled and was difficult to restart. The Sunday was the day of the main FF2000 race which saw a number of top competitors from both the URS Formula Ford 2000 Championship and HSCC Historic FF200 championships go head to head. But as the rain lashed down on the Sunday morning the qualifying for the Formula Ford 2000 race was put back until after the local church break at 11.10. As the cars lined up in the holding area it became apparent that there was an electrical issue with Lawrence Denne’s car and was unable to take part in the qualifying session. Things didn’t get much better for Simon Green as after only 2 quick laps the car developed a massive misfire. Simon came into the pits so that the team could have a look and see if there was an obvious problem, and after cleaning out the distributor cap it seemed as though the misfire had cleared but as soon as Simon got back on track it was clear it hadn’t. Simon returned to the paddock after completing 5 laps and although he had only set 2 quick times he still qualified 9th overall and 3rd in class. Erik Pagano took pole position from Felix Fisher with Andy Huxtable back in 3rd place. As the team were working hard to fix both cars, the race organisers announced that although the qualifying session had been put back by over 2 hours we only had 40 minutes to fix and turn the cars around for the race. However everyone in the team worked hard and found the fault with Lawrence’s car which was found to be the coil and the team found an extremely worn rotor arm and distributor cap. With both cars on the grid with Simon in 9th and Lawrence having to start from the very back in 22nd place the team had everything crossed! As the lights went out, with the cars on wet weather tyres even though the rain had stopped and the track was starting to dry, Simon made yet another excellent start and opted to stay to the outside of the track for Copse while everyone in front queued up behind Erik Pagano as they had taken a gamble and started the race on slicks..... This allowed Simon to drive round the outside of 3 cars as they went through Copse, then as the pack headed up to Maggots/Beckets everyone done the same again and stuck to the inside of the corners as Simon took a run around the outside and got a better drive out of the corner and got up to 4th as the cars headed down the national straight for the first time and this is where Simon finished the first lap. Further back Lawrence Denne who was starting from 22nd had made it you to 9th – gaining a massive 13 places on the first lap!!! As the race continued both Simon and Lawrence carried on up the field. Simon was having a good battle with Richard Wallington as both Simon and Wallington passed Andy Huxtable on the 2nd lap and carried onto battle, until Simon passed Wallington to take 2nd place on lap 5. Meanwhile a little further back Lawrence had made his way up to 6th place and was now battling with Huxtable for 5th place. Simon then started to close on Felix Fisher who had led since the start. On the 8th lap Simon passed Fisher for the lead as they went down the back straight and then managed to get 1.3 second lead over the next 2 laps. On the 11th lap Simon made a mistake through Luffield and Fisher had a better run out of the corner and through Woodcote and re-took the lead and this is how it would stay for the remainder of the race with Fisher taking a well deserved win, Simon taking 2nd overall and First in Class B and Wallington took 3rd place. Meanwhile Lawrence who had a good battle with Huxtable managed to get fifth as on the last lap Huxtable was knocked into a spin by a back marker and hit the wall. Simon for the second day running set the fastest lap in his class. After the race Simon Green commented on his first weekend in a single seater – “This weekend has been an absolutely brilliant weekend for not only me but also for Simon Green Motorsport. For myself to take pole, set fastest lap and finish 2nd in class in the 50km race on Saturday and then to win Class B, set the fastest lap but more importantly finish so high up in the main FF2000 race on Sunday, all in my first weekend of driving a single seater is so much better than I could have wished for!!! Also for Lawrence to have such a strong drive and come through the field and finish 5th, especially after he had previously struggled this year in the wet is also great for the team!!” “I would personally like to thank everyone for their help not only this weekend but for everyone’s hard work in Simon Green Motorsport’s first season. Also I’d like to thank Derek Watling for giving me the chance to race his Reynard SF79 this weekend’ The results from the weekend can be found at: http://hscc.org.uk/resources/HSCC%20Open%20Closed.pdf for the 50km race. http://hscc.org.uk/resources/FF2000.pdf for the FF2000 race. Results Archive Scott Temple, John Wilson,Cadwell Park Lawrence Denne,Snetterton Scott Temple,Silverstone International Lawrence Denne,Oulton Park - Island Graham Lepley,Mallory Park Lawrence Denne,Brands Harch Lawrence Denne,Thruxton Lawrence Denne,Croft Lawrence Denne,Pembrey Lawrence Denne,Mallory Park Lawrence Denne,Castle Combe Simon Green and Lawrence Denne,Silverstone National Simon Green,Cadwell Park - Full Circuit Simon Green,Silverstone - Historic GP