A fantastic weekend from rookie racing driver Enaam Ahmed, saw the 15 year old take his maiden UK MSA Formula overall win in dramatic style!
Following on from Ahmed’s triple race victory in Estonia the weekend prior, the 15 year old from London was feeling confident as he approached qualifying, and he secured a 5th and 4th for race 1 and race 3.
Race 1 got underway and Ahmed made one of his trademark lightening starts, catapulting himself from 5th to 3rd by the time he reached the 1st corner! Unfortunately his team mate Ricky Collard managed to relegate Ahmed back to 4th by the end of the first lap. As the race panned out it was clear to see that Ahmed’s and Collard’s pace was virtually identical, and Ahmed crossed the line in P4, and took the Rookie class victory!
Race 2 was Ahmed’s best chance to take his maiden UK MSA victory, and boy was this race a cracker! The reverse grid saw Ahmed line up in P4. Asthe lights went out, Ahmed made an outrageous manoeuvre around the outside of Druids to secure 3rd place on the opening lap. As the young Brit came to Druids for the second time he teed up 2nd place Rafael Martins for the same move as the previous lap, and managed to make this move stick again, promoting Ahmed into P2! Ahmed was now glued to the gearbox of race leader, and TRS Arden team mate, Sandy Mitchell. A further 13 laps circulated and Ahmed just bided his time and waited for Mitchell to make a mistake. A slight error from Mitchell – by now suffering from a badly steamed-up visor – on the final lap gave Ahmed the inch he needed to launch an attack around the outside at Hawthorns, one of the quickest corners on the Brands Grand Prix circuit. It was a brave manoeuvre but it paid off for Enaam, who finished the final lap 1.1s clear of Sandy for his first MSA Formula win.
“I got a run on Sandy at Surtees and carried the momentum down the hill,” said Enaam. “I got alongside him and thought ‘it’s the last lap – go for it’and I kept it flat. Usually it’s not flat! I slid and we touched but I got through… Mad!”
This maiden victory saw Ahmed take the 2015 UK MSA Formula Rookie championship title! An amazing achievement in only Ahmed’s first year of car racing.
Before race 3 began, Ahmed had been promoted to start the final race of the year in P3 due to Sennan Fielding receiving a grid penalty. The battle for third place was the highlight of the race. Newly crowned Rookie Champion, Ahmed, slotted ahead of his TRS Arden team-mate Collard on the opening lap and clung tenaciously to third all the way to the line despite very worn tyres and heavy pressure from behind, first from JHR Developments driver Sennan Fielding and then from MBM Motorsport man Toby Sowery.
“I was struggling a bit with worn tyres,” said Enaam, “which was an immediate disadvantage. I don’t really know how I stayed in third; my speed was not that great but I just stayed pretty consistent and Sennan didn’t quite have enough to overtake me but he definitely gave me a run for my money. Then on the final lap I had a little nudge from Toby around the back of the circuit, which was quite scary but I managed to hold it. It’s really great to end the season on such a high.” It was Ahmed’s fourth overall podium finish of the season and his sixth Rookie class victory.