Race Report - UK Vee

Brands Hatch 28/9-7-7

The Leastone team made a solid comeback to the UK Formula Vee championship and left Brands Hatch encouraged over the potential of their JH004 in UK trim. David Heavey threw away a possible top 6 finish on Saturday before bringing the car home inside the top ten on Sunday afternoon’s race. He also finished a creditable 6th in the Allcomers event which saw the JH004 battling with slicks and wings shod German machines.

Heavey struggled to get a clear lap in qualifying but even so he was not impressed by his lowly 12th and 13th grid slots. He set about making amends with a rapid start which saw him 9th at the end of the first lap. He managed to jump into 8th on lap two and began attacking a 3 car train for 5th. His attack was short lived however when he “left his brain at Clearways” and pitched his JH004 into the Paddock Hill gravel. Furious over his error, Heavey watched the rest of the race from the bank at Paddock.

During qualifying for the Allcomers on Sunday morning, it was evident that he was in for a tough day. A clutch problem that had manifested itself during Friday testing reappeared, resulting with Heavey losing drive every time he shifted gear. Despite this he qualified the Dunlop machine 8th out of 60 cars which brought some consolidation.

Despite some intermediary repairs during the break, Heavey could barely hang onto the top ten. He battled hard in the opening laps but once the race settled down, he was never in a position to attack. A misfire appeared on lap two which got progressively worse but Heavey sat behind the battle for what would become fourth place and brought the car home in 8th place, a little concerned with the amount of oversteer he was suffering on new tyres.

The Allcomers race began poorly when Heavey missed second gear off the line, dropping him a place. He quickly reclaimed it just as red flags appeared and made sure that there was no repeat performance at the restart. He slotted into 7th place, between two German cars and spent the race defending while trying hard to get himself into a position to snatch 5th. Cautious to not throw away a decent result and struggling with the clutch, Heavey brought the JH004 home for its second top 10 of the day.

“The weekend was great fun. I was so angry with myself after yesterday I was making full sure that I kept it on the road today. The car was awesome, really good fun to drive and without these niggling problems we would have been right up there. But this is motorsport!” said Heavey after his weekend.

It is uncertain as to when the UK car will make its next appearance but Irish Formula Vee championship leader Ken Elliott is keen to get a run after a lacklustre trip to Castle Combe earlier this year.