Summarize

Team South Africa starred in the weekend’s 25th running of the prestigious Walter Hayes Formula Ford Trophy at Silverstone in England. All five drivers qualified for the Grand Final run in cool, dry conditions on Sunday evening before pole man Andrew Rackstraw and Ensor-Smith repeated last year’s feat of an ultra-close second and third to stand on the podium alongside 2025 winner, Brit Jason Smythe.

“I suppose we can say we’d have like to have won, but with Rackstraw and Ensor-Smith both once again on the podium and all five drivers in the final, I think it was a job once again very well done at this year’s 25th Walter Hayes Trophy,” Team patron Ian Schofield explains. “Well done to every member of the team from our drivers Andrew, KC, Julian, Robert and Andy to the technical team and our support crew on a marvellous effort. What a weekend!”

After qualifying second, former South African Investchem Formula 1600 champion and reigning British Porsche Cup champion Rackstraw started on the front foot leading last week’s Formula Ford Festival winner Jason Smythe and 2024 Hayes winner Rory Smith home to win his heat aboard his Kevin Mills Racing Investchem Spectrum 011c. Starting on pole, Andrew then won his semifinal to also start the Grand Final on pole position.

2025 South African MSA4 champion and ‘24 Walter Hayes rookie sensation KC Ensor-Smith likewise put his KMR Investchem Spectrum 011c on pole position for his heat and was leading when he made contact with Ayrton Houk and both spun. KC dropped down the pack but fought back to finish sixth. He then put in a spirited drive to end third in his semifinal to line up fifth for the Grand Final.

Multiple South African single seater and Touring Car champion Robert Wolk and another former Investchem F1600 champion Julian van der Watt both qualified sixth for their heats aboard their Investchem Mygale SJ01s, while Andy Schofield qualified eleventh for his race. Wolk, van der Watt and Schofield all came home eleventh in their heats to go through to their respective semifinals. Julian ended eighth, Robert ninth and Andy seventeenth to see all five South Africans progress to the all-important Grand Final. Julian would start from 16th on the grid with Robert 19th and Andy 34th.

Andrew Rackstraw appeared to get too much wheelspin as Grand Final started with the  sun setting to the west. He slipped back to third behind Nei Murray and Jordan Dempsey with Jacob Tofts, KC Ensor-Smith, and Ayrton Houk in close contact. Rackstraw then spent the entire race fighting it out in the fraught lead bunch with Ensor-Smith consistently a position or two behind .

Jason Smythe had meantime risen from thirteenth on the grid following a ten-place grid penalty, joined the tussling leading group and moved into the lead as the final lap approached. Rackstraw, who had bided his time to move up to second, made a bold move for the lead around the outside, but their wheels rubbed and Andrew went wide to drop to fourth. Then Smyth and Dempsey collided, casing entered Dempsey and Nippers to spin and leave Smythe, Rackstraw and Ensor-Smith in a mad dice to the flag …

Smyth duly took the win to score a British Formula Ford Festival double by all of two tenths of a second from South Africans Rackstraw and KC Ensor-Smith. Compatriots, Julian van der Watt overcame a track limits penalty to end twelfth with Robert Wolk sixteenth and Andy Schofield climbed eleven positions to a fine 25th as Rackstraw and Ensor-Smith proudly graced the podium on the same steps they stood on a year before.