Whitaker in battle for honours

1:38pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

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AMANDA Whitaker had a terrific battle for honours in Historic Formula Ford at Silverstone last weekend.

Racing on the International circuit in her Elden Mk8, the County Durham racer showed her pace by qualifying third in a 33-car grid behind Westie Mitchell and young hotshot and current British Formula Ford Champion Callum Macleod, who was making a guest appearance in the championship.

Whitaker made a good start to slot in behind Mitchell, while Macleod bogged down at the start and slipped back to fourth.

She looked to pass Mitchell on the run down to Abbey on the opening lap, but was herself demoted to third by the recovering Macleod.

He then took the lead from Mitchell at Brooklands and pulled out a small gap and Whitaker looked for a way past Mitchell twice on consecutive laps on the run down to Abbey hairpin before finally making it stick at Copse.

She maintained second before Macleod made an error, half spinning at Becketts and handing the lead to Whitaker.

Whitaker held this for a couple of laps but Macleod retook the lead under braking for Becketts and she had no answer as she was struggling to slow her car down.

"The left rear hub was coming loose which made the handling difficult and also made the brake pedal inconsistent - virtually to the floor on occasion," she said.

Despite the problem, she held a comfortable second place, but towards the end of the race, Whitakers engine started to falter and Mitchell came back past on the start finish straight.

However, Whitaker soldiered on and continued to put pressure on Mitchell.

With two laps to go, he spun at Abbey and she retook second place which she held to the flag with Macleod taking the win and Mitchell third.

"That was a good hard race, but I know I could have gone quicker" said Whitaker. "It was a carburettor problem that was causing the engine to cut out at top revs - that and the hub problem were costing me loads of time.

When it was spluttering I was just thinking C'mon,C'mon! but thankfully it kept going, then as I crossed the finish line it cut out all together - I was lucky to finish actually".

Whitaker also finished the day with a class win and sixth overall in the Classic Racing cars event, pulling out a gap of over 50 seconds over Andrew Garside in the same class also in an Elden Mk 8.

She is now looking forward to the Snetterton double header race in three weeks' time.