October 17, 2009
Daniel 'In with a shot' at Festival final victory
 FF Festival Ht2 - DE leading Barker [Ebrey 665275; 768x769].jpg)
Just 1.138 seconds separated Daniel, here leading Ben Barker into Graham Hill Bend, from victory in his heat. Photo courtesy of Jakob Ebrey Motorsport Photography.
Daniel Erickson says he is "in with a shot" at winning tomorrow's Formula Ford Festival Final if he can start from one of the front three rows.
That's a tall but not impossible order for the Australian Motor Sport Foundation International Rising Star after his solid recovery from a troubled qualifying session (see below) at Brands Hatch today. He started his heat from eighth grid position, but an excellent getaway and a heady drive netted him sixth place by the finish of the 15-lap, 28.5km race on the 1.9km 'Indy' circuit.
Daniel, driving his Australian-built Spectrum racecar, outdragged seventh qualifier and fellow Aussie Scott Pye when the red lights went off. "I got away to a reasonable start and Scott had a bit too much wheelspin," he said.
He passed Briton Ben Barker on lap two, then despatched American Josef Newgarden from fifth place on lap three. By lap five he was only half a second behind fourth-placed Dutchman Liroy Stuart when his forward progress made a U-turn.
"I was catching Liroy, but there was a shambles as the leaders went into Druids Bend," he said. "It continued down into Graham Hill Bend, then suddenly everybody slowed down and they were all bumping into each other, and I was trapped on the outside.
"Ben Barker had passed Newgarden but he was a little way back from me when I propped, so he was able to spot a gap and get a run on me through Graham Hill Bend. We were level through Surtees and into Clearways, and there was nothing I could do to stop him getting past without driving into him, which would have been unfair as well as risky.
"After that, Ben defended really well - which isn't hard to do on a tight circuit like 'Indy' - and there was no opportunity for me to get back past him."
On lap 11 the safety car came out for four laps while Josh Benson's car was removed from the exit of Clearways. Daniel looked for an opportunity to outfox Barker at the restart, but that didn't happen.
"Ben was a bit too far behind the car in front of him as we came up to Clearways, so he sped up and I did too, but he was going too fast and jumped on the brakes right in front of me," he said. "As a result I lost my run onto the front straight, and I couldn't catch Ben in the one lap before the end of the race."
At the chequered flag, Daniel was just 1.138 seconds behind the winner, Dutch Formula Ford Champion Melroy Heemskerk. Significantly, his fastest lap was only 0.058 seconds - nothing in real terms - slower than Briton Chrissy Palmer's fastest lap of the race, indicating that his Spectrum was right on the pace.
"I was pleased to be able to keep up with the leaders in my heat, but now the pressure's on to move up the order in my Semi-final tomorrow," he said. "If I finish fourth in the Semi I'll only start eighth in the Final, and realistically that's too far back to win unless there's carnage among the leaders.
"But if I can start the Final in the top five or six then I'm in with a shot."
QUALIFYING
The 33 Duratec-engined entries and 12 Zetec (the Formula Ford engine that preceded the Duratec) entries were divided into two groups, which had their own heats before being mixed for the Semi finals (see methodology, below).
The Zetecs will have their Final separately from the Duratecs, which will be sorted - and culled, if necessary - into a 28-car Final.
Daniel had the misfortune to be in Group 2, which looked to be the tougher one. It contained seven of the 10 top placegetters from the just-completed 2009 British Formula Ford Championship compared to only three, including newly crowned champion and 'local lad' James Cole, in the first group!
(British Racing and Sports Car Club Competitions Director Drew Furlong said that the two groups were selected "purely randomly by drawing them from a hat".)
Daniel was confident of continuing his sparkling form from the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday test days to Saturday's 20-minute qualifying shootout. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that way for the talented young Australian.
His first few laps, which are usually the quickest on new tyres before the rubber starts to 'go off', were in the high-47s/low-48s. That was almost half a second slower than the pacesetters' times, so after eight laps he came into the pits for the Kevin Mills Racing mechanics to make a minor set-up adjustment.
They also fitted his second and last set of new tyres. Daniel had wanted to reserve the second new set for the Final, or at least his Semi-final, but with time running out and the prospect of starting in the bottom half of the field looming there was no choice.
"I wasn't coming onto the front straight fast enough early in the session," he said later. "My entry speed into Clearways was okay, but I was going a bit too quickly mid-corner. "At the time it felt good, and I thought it was working in my favour, but in reality it was ruining my top speed along the straight."
On fresh tyres Daniel clocked a best lap of 47.603 seconds, just 0.138 seconds off Melroy Heemskerk's pole position time but only good enough for eighth grid position.
2009 FORMULA FORD FESTIVAL - BRANDS HATCH 'INDY', KENT, ENGLAND
Saturday, October 17
Heat 2, 15 laps (28.5km)
POS. DRIVER (NAT) CAR TIME
1. Melroy Heemskerk (NDL) Mygale SJ07 13min. 20.414sec.
2. Chrissy Palmer (GB) Mygale SJ08 13min. 20.463sec.
3. Liroy Stuart (NDL) Mygale SJ09 13min. 20.915sec.
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6. Daniel Erickson (AUS) Spectrum 011c 13min. 21.552sec.
BRANDS HATCH TIMETABLE
Sunday, October 18
11:40 GMT / 21.40pm Australian EDT - Semi-final 1* including Daniel Erickson, 18 laps (34.2km)
12:15 GMT / 22.15pm Australian EDT - Semi-final 2*, 18 laps (34.2km)
17:20 GMT / 03:20 Monday, Australian EDT - Final, 25 laps (47.5km)
* The semi-final grids are compiled from the results of both heats as follows:
Semi final 1. Pole position goes to the winner of the faster heat; second grid position goes to the 2nd finisher in the slower heat; third grid position goes to the third finisher in the faster heat, and so on.
Semi-final 2. Pole position goes to the winner of the slower heat; second grid position goes to the 2nd finisher in the faster heat; third grid position goes to the third finisher in the slower heat, and so on.
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The 1.9km Brands Hatch 'Indy' circuit
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