Murray & Team Dolan Increase BRSCC FF1600 Series Lead with Brands Double

Dublin motor racing star Niall Murray took pole position and two wins at the historic Brands Hatch circuit yesterday to further extend his BRSCC Avon Tyres FF1600 championship lead in his Team DOLAN/Murray Motorsport Van Diemen.

In qualifying, both traffic and a red flag had impeded the Team Dolan drivers’ attempts to run a clean lap. However,  championship leader Murray unsurprisingly managed to find the space for one clean run at pole position and achieved this with a time of 50.346 seconds.

On Saturday afternoon, race one of the weekend got underway, Niall led away and with a dominant performance, crossed the line almost six seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, to win his third race of the season. Team Dolan team mate Matt Round-Garrido battled throughout the race to bring home a sixth-place finish and Jack Wolfenden was unfortunate to not finish the race due to a first lap collision with another driver.

Sunday arrived with similar temperatures. Niall started from pole position for the second race of the weekend with Jack starting from the back of the grid and Matt taking sixth place on the grid. Staring from pole once again, Murray took his second lights to flag victory of the weekend. Despite two safety car periods backing up the pack, he finished with a healthy gap over the hugely experienced Joey Foster in second place, Matt brought his car home in fourth and Jack achieved eighteenth after a two second penalty was issued due to a track infringement.

The final race at Brands Hatch sadly didn’t show the potential of all three cars, with a partly reversed grid, Niall started back in eighth place but a typically feisty charge saw him climb to fourth before a safety car intervention. when the cars went back racing, series leader Murray sliced down the inside of Jamie Thorburn to annex third and was immediately on the tail of the two leaders. The safety car period had effectively shortened the race though, and the Murray Motorsport car could make no more progress, crossing the line in third. Team mate Matt was forced to pull over on the main straight due to a distributor issue and Jack’s race prematurely ended when a brake issue into the final corner sent him into the gravel trap.

Dolan Racing will compete in the next round at Kirkistown Circuit with Matt Round-Garrido competing in multiple races as the National and Northern Irish Championships will be run on the same weekend. Due to other commitments Jack Wolfenden will not race at this event but will return for July’s round at Castle Combe.

Thumbs up from @niallmurray5 as he takes his second @BRSCCFF1600 win of the weekend at @Brands_Hatch #FF1600 #IrishDriversAbroad ☘️🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/nfjX6AZCT2

— Motorsport.ie (@motorsport_ie) June 3, 2018