Niall Murray has been crowned the provisional 2018 British National Formula Ford 1600 champion with a meeting to space courtesy of a win at Croft last weekend.
The Irish racer’s eleventh win of the season so far has put him out of reach at the top of the standings to secure the sixth championship title of his career.
Murray returned to the National Formula Ford series at the start of the year in the same Van Diemen RF99 that took him to the 2016 crowned with the renowned engineer Bernard Nolan.
Making a statement of intent with a win in the opening weekend, Murray went on to take nine further successes including a stunning hat-trick at Castle Combe.
That ensured he headed to Croft with the chance to provisionally take the crown, and he bounced back superbly from a race one retirement to get the decisive victory.
Murray now heads into the season finale at Donington Park next month with the chance to match or beat his tally of twelve victories from his 2016 title-winning campaign.
“I’m absolutely delighted to unofficially seal my sixth championship in five years today with three rounds still to go!” said Murray.
“We’ve had a few DNFs this season but I’m delighted to say that I’ve won at least one race at every weekend this year and race two at Croft was the only race all year I’ve finished off the podium.
“A huge congratulations and thanks to all the guys at Team DOLAN for all their hard work throughout the year. Also a big shout out to all my very loyal sponsors who’ve stuck by me over the last number of years, it’s great to be able to reward them with lots of success like this.”
Murray’s Roll Call of Honours:
2010 Ginetta Junior Ireland champion
2013 Formula Ford Festival winner
2013 Dunlop Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year
2014 Northern Ireland Formula Ford 1600 champion
2014 All Ireland Formula Ford 1600 Champion
2015 SEAT Supercup Ireland champion
2016 BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 champion
2016 Formula Ford Festival winner
2016 Walter Hayes Trophy winner
2016 Martin Donnelly Trophy winner
2018 BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 champion
