16th July 2010

Champion of Brands
Round 3

The biggest event of the year so far, the Champion of Brands series was supporting the World Touring Cars and Formula 2 races. As well as the great racing throughout the weekend, the sunny weather played its part in drawing large crowds of spectators.

After retiring early from the last race with a bewildering mechanical problem, the car had to be taken out on a test day on the Wednesday before the race. After eliminating various items we found that the carburettor had failed which caused the engine to ultimately die. With a new carburettor fitted the car it was feeling good and there were high hopes for the race weekend.

Just as the cars were leaving the pits for their qualifying session a light drizzle began to come down, as the track conditions were deteriorating all the drivers were pushing early on for some quick laps. Matthew managed to time the conditions perfectly and before further rain came down he posted a lap 1.2 seconds faster than anyone else. The drivers kept on pushing for faster lap times and as the weather was getting worse the inevitable happened and the qualifying session was red flagged due to a crash.

Matthew made a good start from pole position and led the pack around the first lap of the grand prix circuit. As the leaders completed the first lap Skinner who was currently running second made a clumsy overtaking move on Matthew and collided with his rear wheel causing him to get fired off backwards into the gravel at near on 100mph. Luckily Matthew managed to miss the tyre wall and get the car out of the gravel, but by which time he had dropped down to 14th position. On a charge back through the field Matthew broke the lap record for the Brands GP circuit and brought the car home to finish in 5th place.

A bit of a disappointing weekend but with such a strong performance in qualifying and the race there are still a lot of positives to take from the weekend. Plans for the next race are still undecided but I’m sure there will be another strong performance with hopefully a little less bad luck.

22nd May 2010

Champion of Brands
Round 2

The attraction of racing on the Grand Prix circuit drew a large entry for round 2. Top drivers from Ireland, England, Scotland and even two from Holland had entered to try win the Champion of Brands title. Matthew was joined by his Unitec team mate David Grady.

The race day would be challenging as neither Unitec drivers had even driven on the GP loop and no practice was available. This meant some educated guess work for the gearing and a walk around the track the evening before. In the 15 minute qualifying Grady held pole until the Irish star driver Neville Smyth put in a super quick lap of 1min 36.6 sec's. Despite the engine cutting out at high speed on certain corners Matthew pulled out all the stops and on the last lap clocked a time of 1 min 36.9 sec's to take second on the grid. With Grady 3rd and the Australian Skinner 4th.

Despite some adjustments to the carburetor before the race, the misfire Matthew had suffered in qualifying continued and on lap 3 Matthew's engine dramaticaly stopped causing him to retire from the race, which handed the race win to Smyth.

27th March 2010

Champion of Brands
Round 1

Matthew qualified on pole with a respectable 50.3sec lap with the Australian hot shot, Jordan Skinner in 2nd. To make things interesting the race was on a damp track with a dry racing line. Matthew took the lead at the start but was overtaken on lap 3 by the Australian. With 3 laps to go Matthew made a superb move into clearways to take the lead, which he was to hold to the flag. This win meant Matthew would become the reigning Champion of Brands until the next round on the 22nd May. Being the first winner of the series since 1994 drew a lot of media attention in the motor sport press.

17/18th October 2009

Brands Hatch
Round 11/12 of the Webcon UK National Formula Ford championship moved to Brands Hatch - our home race.
A solid performance in qualifying secured 4th position for the race with tenths separating the top 6. "The Unitec pair of Parr and Grady thought it was their birthday - well Matthew did – as they swept past the leaders who had tangled in turn 3. Matt had headed David Grady for two laps, then at mid distance the leading four were as one and it was reminding me just why I love Formula Ford so much, when on lap 14 the yellow helmet of Matthew drove right round the outside of Grady at Druids. This turned out to be the decisive race winning move when the chequered flag came out nine laps later"

11th July 2009

Oulton Park

Round 6 of the Webcon UK National Formula Ford Championship moved to Oulton Park; using the full 2.69 mile International configuration of the Cheshire circuite.

Trouble with the gear box on Friday testing made the challenge of learning a new track and finding a good setup harder than normal, with only two sessions completed on Friday things were not going to plan. With some changes to the car overnight it was a bit of an unknown as to the performance of the car for qualifying. Competitors were faced with the challenge of a fine drizzle starting to fall on a dry track surface just as they commenced their session. It was cleat that the overnight changes paid of when Matthew was topping the time sheets half way through the qualifying, ending up qualifying 5th overall.

The weather conditions remained warm and dry for the day's race. Matthew made a good start but was sqeezed into the barriers into the first cornerand had to settle for 5th place into the first corner. A good early pace allowed Matthew to stay with tthe leading group and chalenge 4th position. As the race transpired the car became visually difficult to drive and with overheated tyres Matthew had to settle for 5th position. This was still a decent result considering the lack of testing at this circuit.

2nd November 2008

Walter Hayes Trophy

It was to be a completely new experience, unlike any race this season with 120+ cars entered, including some very experienced professional racing drivers, there was no doubt, this was going to be the hardest race of the season. With a large number of cars came a more complicated race structure: To determine the starting position for the semi-finals there were heat races, the top 11 from each heat would qualify for the semi-final and the top 17 from the semi-final would qualify for the grand final. Before all that there was qualifying to determine where you started in the heats.

From a cold but dry Friday came a cold but wet Saturday. The qualifying went very well and Matthew managed to get pole for the first heat, the highlight of this was outqualifying Formula 3 race winner and LeMans Driver Joey Foster who would start second on the grid. The heat however didnt go to well, problems with the rear brakes snaching on aided Matthew off the track and to the back of the field. He made a good recovery though and finished 4th. Unable to solve the issue with the brakes, the Semi-final and the grand final positions were not as good as may have been possable. A 13th place in the final was still a good, encouraging result for his first attempt.

28th September 2008

Mallory Park

The final race of the championship was held at Mallory Park, for Matthew the weekend started with an ignition cable falling off during qualifying, this ment he had less time to put in a hot lap,and ended up qualifying 6th, this was still a good position but could have possably been closer to the front without the troubles. After a couple of laps Matthew was showing his true pace and by the first three or four laps was up to 4th place. By the time Matthew had got into third the two leaders had a large lead and with only five or so laps to go there was no chance in catching them. "I'm really happy with the result, i was hoping for another podium and having finished 3rd it means that we have 2nd in the championship, this is a great result for me in my first season of single seater racing, a big thanks to Team West-Tec who have proved invaluable at setting the car up, and coaching my driving throughout the season."

25th August 2008

Mallory Park

With two rounds to go at a windy but dry Mallory Park circuit ,Matthew is now racing for second in the championship in only his first season in Formula Ford. Managing to out qualify his vastly more experienced team mate for third on the grid. After the race start it was an unusually quiet race for Matthew as he mantained an even cushion between 4th and 2nd place. evently finishing in the position he started. "its really close now in the championship with three drivers after second place, im feeling confident for the next two rounds and all im thinking about is finish at the front".

21st August 2008

Silverstone

Matthew storms through to take second at a very wet silverstone. Even the great British weather couldn’t put a damper on the final Powernights of 2008 with a family audience of over 2000 people enjoying the action packed races.

It got off to a bad start however for Matthew with last minute showers just before qualifying making the conditions very tough with a dry setup car. dispite qualifying midfield, Matthew charged through to take a well deserved 2nd place setting fastest lap and winning prize money to sweeten the deal. The whole race is to be shown on Motors TV from the 6-11 th of September.