Murray confident in pace despite challenging start to FF C’ship
By Stephen Leonard
NIALL Murray believes he and his Bernard Dolan Motorsport team possess the pace necessary to win the British Formula Ford Championship despite enduring a somewhat frustrating weekend in what was the curtain raiser to the season.
Lining out at Oulton Park, the Firhouse man demonstrated his potential by topping the unofficial times throughout the day.
Opting to skip Saturday morning’s free practice session, he turned his attention to qualifying and immediately topped the timesheets and remained there throughout, despite having two of his quicker lap times chalked off for a breach of track limit regulations.
Starting the first race of the season from pole position, Murray was forced into a spin exiting the first corner, consequently pushing him to the back of the 27-car field.
Never one to give up, he set about eating his way through the field and, by the mid-way point, had moved up to sixth, setting two fastest lap times on route.
Now locked in battle with the RAY of Cavan Corcoran, Murray suffered a further setback when slipping off the track at Knickerbook.
Despite showing signs of a heavy impact with the tyres, his speed looked to be unaffected as he now re-started his charge back up the order from ninth.
Crossing the line for the final time, Murray had made his way through to sixth position and, with it, his first haul of important championship points in what was a major confidence booster.
With starting positions for the second and final race of the day being drawn from the finishing order of Race One, Murray started from row three, but crucially had to leave the assembly area on a fully dry setup as an unexpected downpour came upon the circuit.
Knowing he would struggle for traction as the race went on compared to those around him, Murray quickly promoted himself to fourth during the opening laps.
Now mounting a bid to close in on third placed man Jonny McMullan, he was forced to keep one eye on his mirrors as Corcoran was closing in rapidly.
Just as he started to ease out a small margin over the RAY driver, Murray was now facing a new challenge for position from Chris Middlehurst.
With the gap closing to just one tenth of a second, the Dubliner had to use every ounce of his defensive skill to maintain fourth place.
A failed move for position from the Mygale driver afforded him the breathing space he needed to secure his fourth position by the chequered flag.
“I think it’s fair to say it has been a very mixed weekend for us” said Murray.
“Obviously to secure pole position in qualifying and the fastest lap in Race One is great, but I really should have been able to win the opening race, which would have allowed us to try and do the same in Race Two.
“But it’s the first weekend of the year, and the important thing is we’ve got the pace to win, so I’m obviously very happy with that.
“Everyone at Bernard Dolan Motorsport did a great job on the car, and I’m really looking forward to Silverstone in two weeks time.
“A big thanks to all my sponsors for coming back on board with me for 2016 including, Murray Motorsport, OMP, CL Brakes, Fish Graphics, SuperB, Motorsport Ireland and P1 : Digital” he added.
