Dominant Dempsey Does The Double- and closes in on UK FF1600 Title!

Having taken in two Champion Of Brands FF1600 rounds earlier in the month- and won them, there was no doubt that Jordan Dempsey would be the man to beat when the Avon Tyres National Formula Ford series visited the Kent venue last weekend. What was a surprise, however, was the margin he had over his competitors. The Mullingar man stopped the clocks in qualifying at 49.406, a shade under half a second faster than his closest challenger- a gap usually unheard of in the closely fought FF1600 paddock.

In the opening race, the former Motorsport Ireland young Driver of the Year made no mistakes to lead away from the notoriously tricky Brands Hatch pole position. Colin Queen kept him honest in the opening laps but once Jordan got into his rythm, his pace showed and he began to ease away. Crossing the line almost four seconds to the good, Jordan also took fastest lap for the perfect start to his weekend.  Race two was something of a carbon copy, although Jordan had to fight off Queen in the early stages, before he eased away from mid race on. “There wasn’t much grip early on in that one.”, he said “maybe it was from the Citroen C1 Endurance cars, but once the grip came back, the car was perfect!”

As ever, race three was not going to be quite so straightforward. With the top six finishers from race two being reversed to form the grid, Jordan said there wouldn’t be any heroics, saying he needed to “do a Colin Turkington- stay out of trouble and take some points!” It’s not that easy in FF1600 though and Jordan found himself in the middle of a train of cars battling for position early on. Having moved to third by mid race, Jordan and the Kevin Mills Spectrum stretched their legs once again, closing up on second placed Rory Smith. Far from staying out of the scrap, Jordan piled the pressure on and eventually made the move stick with a switchback at Paddock Hill Bend. He immediately pulled away and began to close the gap to leader Shawn Rashid and suddenly it seemed the treble might actually be on. Before he could challenge though, the red flags flew as Andre Lafond and Morgan Quinn, who had been running strongly all weekend, tangled at Paddock. Both drivers were fine and a result was declared, with Jordan classified second- not a bad weekend. with just one more meeting to run, at Donington Park on September, 24/25, Jordan now has one hand firmly on the 2022 title, after what can only be surprised as a super impressive season. His current tally stands at 8 National Championship wins, plus two Champion of Brands victories as well. Don’t bet against him increasing those numbers before the end of the season!

Jordan Dempsey: ““I’m absolutely delighted to have gotten such a great points haul this weekend, only 5 points off the textbook perfect weekend for the second weekend in a row! The Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum was on rails all weekend and the MCP engine was like a rocket ship as usual! I can’t wait for Donington now in a few weeks to try and seal the championship, it’s my favorite track and has treated me well in the past so hopefully it does the same again! Big thanks to Kevin, and all the lads for all the great work at the weekend and also to Dad on the spanners and also to Emily and Jake for all the support all weekend! Big thanks to all of my sponsors without whom I wouldn’t be here!”

Jordan is sponsored by Novitas, TBRM, Rescu U Van Hire, Kender, Sleator Kia, Canore Hygiene and Coull Services.

Images from Alastair Ladd