Ben Norton only needed a few points from the August bank holiday event to secure the Castle Combe FF1600 title, but he still dived into the thick of the hardest-fought race of an epic 2009 season. In the end it was Marcus Allen who inched ahead of Felix Fisher and Steven Jensen to take the win, while fourth for Norton saw him crowned the champion.

It’s a dilemma faced by many drivers from the grass roots to Formula 1: with only a few points needed to clinch a title but a package fast enough to win, do you hang back and play safe, or race for the victory as usual?
Ben Norton wasn’t sure, and reckoned he would probably make his mind up “when the lights went out.” And when they did, it seemed the decision was ‘just get on with it’, as the Spectrum scorched off the line faster than the two Swifts on row one and went through Folley three-abreast with Allen – who held the lead – and Fisher, who slipped to third.

The battle was then paused due to an incident at the Esses, which saw Andrew Harris (Power Clean Van Diemen RF99) get    spun    by    Tom    Margetson (Glassimage/Wayne    Poole    Racing Reynard 89FF) after having to back off abruptly as Josh Barnett (Saab City Van Diemen RF88) came past.
The chain reaction wiped out not only Harris, but crucially Pre 90 points leader Julian Heap’s Reynard 89FF. It also left Wayne Poole creeping back to the pits with a damaged Van Diemen RF88, and sent his and Margetson’s team-mate Ashley Clifford tumbling down the order after another strong qualifying effort from the Mallorca-based long distance commuter.
Three laps later, the racing resumed – and it didn’t relent for a single second over the remaining eight laps as Allen, Norton and Fisher were soon joined by Steven Jensen in a spine-tingling four- way lead fight. A new set of tyres had revitalised Jensen’s Swift SC09 after a depressing row five qualifying run, and thanks to a fast start and swashbuckling restart – at which he avoided damage in an Esses traffic jam that cost Vivian and Andrew Jones (Coachstyle Ray GRS08) ground – he was now right with the leaders.
All four cars were tied together less than a second apart, but unlike so many tense yet static Combe FF1600 races in recent years, this time they were frantically passing and repassing each other. Fisher grabbed second from Norton into Quarry soon after the restart, then capitalised on Allen’s lurid exit to Camp to draft around the outside over Avon Rise and claim the lead at half-distance.
Allen didn’t let him get away, though, repassing within two laps. But then a three-abreast moment between Allen, Fisher and Jensen – who had just got around Norton – into Quarry on lap nine saw Fisher hit the front again... at least for one lap before Allen, whose discomfort was not slowing him in the slightest, snatched the lead back once more.

That’s where the Kevin Mills Racing driver would remain, despite having three more experienced drivers clambering all over his tail, fanning out across the track on every straight as they scrabbled for a slipstream. “It was all about the draft into Quarry and who had it on the right lap,” reckoned Fisher. “I kept going to the outside into Camp to keep Marcus on a tight line and hope he’d cock it up. But he always held it, and every time I moved left, Steven or Ben would appear on the right. You don’t get racing like that anywhere else, in any formula.”
Allen resisted Fisher’s final outside line attempt at Camp and crossed the line with his fist aloft as he claimed the third win (including his National round triumph) of his sensational rookie season by just 0.123s – with only half a second covering the entire top four.
It was Jensen who completed the podium, having swapped places with Norton twice on the final two laps.
“Once Ben was behind me I thought ‘he’s going for the championship, he won’t be too much hassle,’ but fair play to him, he went for it,” said Jensen, who has now taken four podiums this year but started in the top three only once. “There were moments when I thought I was going to win that. I’d just love to have one weekend where I start on the first or second row and show what I can do.”