21/04/2026
Round 1 Race Report
Well, what can we say, what a whirlwind of a weekend! Joining the Forty40 Family this weekend for the first time were two young friends, Albert and Charlie, Albert in the No8 car and Charlie was sharing the 78racinguk car with Mr Speed & Power himself, James Poole.
We had done some winter testing with these young men and it was looking promising, we had no idea how quick they would be though! Friday testing saw times continually tumbling with the 59’s reached before long, at this point we knew the weekend was going to get interesting!
Come Saturday sprints we were joined by returning driver Lee Pearce to come and mix up the grid! Quali 1 saw all the times going the right way with Lee, Albert and Charlie getting 3rd, 7th & 8th in class respectively, all 3 in the top 10 for Quali and the 2 young guys a little over half a second off the top 3!! Quali 2 saw Charlie swap with James Poole for the second sprint, and we had Lee, Albert and James Quali in 4th, 10th & 19th respectively, proud of all our guys for their performance and all of the grid took notice of these two young lads on their first ever Quali sessions in cars.
Race 1 saw both the boys feeling very nervous, neither had ever done a full throttle standing launch at all, they both got off the grid without fault and although there was a few places lost, they got stuck in and powered on! Charlie had a coming together with a more experienced driver, almost every panel on the fresh 78 racing car ended up with damage, Charlie however, held his own and gave as good as he got, both myself and James, mega proud! Albert had a much cleaner race thankfully, not ‘rubbins racing’ towards him and the way he navigated through traffic and challenged other drivers, very impressive, clean and tidy, very impressive, I can see that he is going to be a great contender!
Lee had a fantastic race, few little batted and brought it home in one piece (all be it with a 5 sec track limit penalty 😬) the guys finished with Lee in 6th, Charlie in 7th and Albert in 11th, this started all the chat that continued for the weekend……..the Forty40 cars were coming!! 🤣
Race 2 saw James Poole behind the wheel of the 78 car and we all know James loves a race start, instantly taking places on the start, this was followed by a real clean race seeing him finish in a respectable 13th, coming back, importantly with no further damage!
Lee had a phenomenal battle with Jack Godden, holding him off till the very last lap, a small mistake saw the two have a very light touch going into Surtees and that sent Lee off across the grass, this is where Lee’s experience with short oval shines, having a nice controlled slide across the grass, avoiding collecting Jack as he re entered the track and only lost the one position, other that a small scuff and a bent wheel, all was good, bringing it home in very respectable 5th, along with that, driver of the day! Well done there!
Albert once again had a battle from the start, his car runs a paddle clutch and as such, really isn’t fun to get off the line, this put him in the thick of it having some great racing with far more experienced drivers, all of which he raced with absolute precision and brought it home in 11th, jus outside top 10, but, second ever race…..what a result!!
Sunday was here soon enough, joining us then to complete our little family, the one, the only Paul Offord! Back with his old 64 number as he has passed the torch of the 116 Trophy to a new driver.
Quali was interesting, the two young guys were on fire!!! 🔥
Albert qualifying 3rd, Charlie/James 5th, we then had Lee in 8th and Paul in 22nd, to have 3 of our 4 in top 10, couldn’t have had a bigger smile going!!
Race start saw Albert a little nervous as it’s rolling and another new thing to learn! He got stuck in, like really stuck in and before long had broken the lap record, I mean, in his first ever trophy race, 3 race ever!! He was in amongst the quick boys, showing he deserved to be there! Unfortunately Mack Priestwood first equalled Albert’s time then beat him by a couple of hundreds of a second, well done to him, what came later though is what was really gutting, after an incident later in the race involving a couple of cars coming together, the yellows came out, this coincided with when we were pitting Albert, he came in as it was still under yellow, the safety car came out a couple of seconds later and as far as we knew, we were safe, unfortunately the decision was made that he pitted under safety car, a decision that saw him with a 2 lap penalty, it’s a decision that half the grid disagreed with, people from the outside, disagreed with and a point that we will be seeking clarification on in the coming weeks.
James started the 78 car and as usual with his starts was flying! There was an early coming together with Luke Fox but they both held it together and carried on, thankfully! Once the first stop was made, Charlie jumped in the car, quickly putting in times into the 59 sec bracket! Unfortunately Charlie picked up a 5 sec penalty and this just shows how hard the young guy was pushing! We had a very unfortunate bit of luck when it came to swapping James back into the car, a late safety car meant that the pit window closed under safety car and we pitted late, picking up a 1 lap penalty for our troubles, this put them in 19th, we are adjusting to the new rules around pitstops and as we found, getting 4 cars through a 25 min window, not fun!!
Lee was having a fantastic drive, considering his properly worn out tyres on the LH of the car, not ideal at a track like Brands Hatch! He powered on and even after a little moment with the grass still brought it home in 5th, mega result!
Paul saw, as we have come to see, a real clean race, the man is a legend and super clean and calm, always have the same answer from Paul when he’s asked mid race if all of ok, ‘yeh, all good!’ He stayed out of the trouble that came later in the race and brought it home in 15th, awesome result there!
All in, we a calling this weekend the single most successful weekend in Forty40’s long time in the 116i Trophy, the driving standards from all of our drivers were fantastic, no points picked up for any faults, the two young guys proving they are going to be ones to watch this year and Lee showing that now he has a good car, his talent will shine, Paul again, here showing that he’s always been one of the cleanest and fairest drivers on the grid with consistent times and decent pace!
Myself and Chantal are so very proud of all of our guys, a massive thanks to everyone that helped us this weekend, both at the weekend and leading up to it.
The Forty40 Family will be back for round 2 v.soon…..watch out grid!!
Big thanks to Den Devlin for some of these pics of the cars/boys.
Forty40 Racing
Chantal-Louise Page
Stuart Braisby
Surrey Rolling Road
Questmead
Simple Racing
Garage15
