Courtsey of Kat Impey

Katharine Impey took to the third row in qualifying at the Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival weekend, in the final round of the BRSCC Formula 3 championship. The Formula Ford Festival weekend is an annual highlight of the motor racing calendar held at the end of the British racing season at the Kent circuit.

For the third time this year Impey raced with the Milton Keynes-based team Lanan Racing, currently one of the top teams in the championship.

Impey once again managed to emulate her podium-winning achievements with a third place finish in the second race, which was an excellent result for Impey, whose enrolment on the Motor Sports Association (MSA) Academy’s Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) programme marks her out as one of the UK’ s most promising young drivers.

For most of Saturday’ s qualifying session, Impey was running in second position in the difficult damp conditions, but was eventually squeezed out to fifth in the final stages as the track started to dry, with Lanan team-mate Alex Craven taking third.

Impey made a good start in the first race on Saturday, pushing hard in fifth position and chasing down fourth place Mark Harrison, whose defensive driving was holding Impey up and backing them both into the chasing pack. Impey got a good run on Harrison out of the final corner, slipstreaming him down the pit straight before pulling out and making a gutsy move around the outside of Harrison at Paddock Hill bend.

Impey, now up to fourth place, started to pull a gap on Harrison and with little time remaining pushed hard to close the gap to the top three. When the chequered flag fell Impey’ s more experienced Team-mate Craven took the win with Impey finishing in a creditable fourth place.

After the race she said: “ I felt very strong, one of the quickest cars on the track. Mark Harrison’ s excellent defensive driving meant it took me a good few laps before I managed to make a successful pass. It was a great battle but it meant it didn’ t leave me much time to reduce the gap to the leaders.”

In Sunday’ s race Impey made another good start which instantly moved her up to third position, however reigning champion Chris Needham soon got the run on her and Impey found herself demoted back to fourth.

With Louis Hamilton-Smith chasing hard behind her Impey knew she had her work cut out. She defended courageously but slipped back to fifth place while the leading pack continued to push each other hard. Fortunately for Impey both Needham and Craven made crucial mistakes promoting her up to third position, which is where she took the chequered flag.

“ It was a good weekend overall and my pace in the damp conditions was very promising,” she said.

“ I have learned so much working with Lanan Racing over the three race meetings in which I have been run by them. I would like to continue with Lanan Racing for next season but it is dependent on raising sponsorship over the winter break.”

Impey would like to thank all of the support from her current sponsors, SWAT, Tyger design and print, Oakingham Construction, family and friends.

She is also inviting offers from potential sponsors to get involved in new businessadvertisement opportunities and for more information visit www.katimpey.com or phone 07828 284308

Photo credit: Tim Surman