After learning that he would not be able to take part in the 2007 Formula Palmer Audi Autumn Trophy, Rafael was looking forward to achieving a good result in the Star of Silverstone Formula Ford races this weekend.  On Friday 26^th of October

Rafael took part in a one hour test session which took place on a very greasy track. Unfortunately Rafael suffered a big accident from no fault of his own as another driver locked up his breaks and flew over the top of Raf’s car after running into the back of him, the wheel even touching Rafael’s helmet! Luckily no-one was injured in the shunt, but this ended Rafael’s session for the day. On Saturday the conditions were much better as the track was dry and gave way to much more grip which Rafael was not used to, as all the other races and practices he did were in damp or very wet conditions. Raf pushed the car near to its limits and managed to get pole position, with a 1.582 gap on second place Bob Houghton, just before a car got stranded on the track, triggering the red flag that stopped the session.

“I am really happy to get pole position with such a lead! I was definitely not expecting such a difference! The car was running great and the conditions out there were good, which meant I could push the car a little more and managed to get one quick lap before the red flags came out. Now, I just need to get a good start off the grid and I will have to do my best to keep Bob behind me”

In the first race Rafael got off to a good start as he hoped for, led the pack into turn one and then gradually built up the gap with second place Houghton, to finally secure his second win of the series with panache.

“This is a great win! I got the start I wanted and then controlled the gap until the end without pushing to the limit”.

Though Rafael says he did not push too much he still posted the fastest lap of the race which was 1 second quicker that Houghton’s best time!  In the second race Rafael started on pole position once again, got a good start and again led going into turn one. This time round the track was less grippy as some drizzle started to fall on Silverstone, but this did not stop Rafael from building a 15 second gap on second place David Julian and winning his third race out of six!

“I am delighted with this third victory! I could not have hoped for a better weekend! Everything played in my favour for once! I saw that I was quicker than Dave and so did not want to push anymore than I had to in order to maintain a comfortable gap. I got the gap and then just remained concentrated to keep the car on the track as conditions out there were quite changing. But got the result in the end, it was a great season!”.

Now Rafael looks forward to next season in which he hopes to take part in the 2008 UK Formula Renault championship.