Teesside’s Sarah Hall To Race At Croft This Weekend

This weekend the longstanding Darlington & District Motor Club will again hold its Battle of Britain race meeting at the Croft circuit just south of Darlington, an occasion which is always highly unusual as the extensive timetable includes races for cars, motorbikes and sidecars. It will also stand out as only the second opportunity Teesside based motorsport photographer and manufacturer driver trainer Sarah Hall will have to go racing herself rather than just catching the action on camera from trackside.

Her father, Ken, was a successful speedway rider before competing in rallies, rallycross and circuit racing and so, growing up in a motorsport dominated environment, it’s no surprise that Sarah, who’s now in her early 30s, has sought to develop her own career in a similar direction. Just as my own early passion for the sport and ultimately Formula 1 in particular was due to my father regularly taking me to car and bike race meetings around Yorkshire when still a young boy.

Sarah is thrilled to get a first chance to line up on the Croft grid for the four Focus Cup events, going well beyond her normal role as the manager of their media. The Focus Cup races are run throughout the season at a variety of English circuits and represent an opportunity to “arrive, drive and race” on a level playing field in professionally prepared and technically equal cars without the driver needing to be mechanically adept and without needing a large personal budget. As you might already have guessed, the cars are all race prepared versions of the Ford Focus (the 2.0TDCi Zetec S 3 door version to be precise) and, having paid to race for the whole season or at individual events, the driver just needs to turn up with a race suit and race licence plus plenty of enthusiasm.

Looking ahead to a busy weekend which will feature practice on Friday followed by qualifying and two races on both Saturday and Sunday, Sarah enthused to me “I’m really excited now, but the nerves are starting to kick in a little.” Fortunately her partner Steven is a racing coach and will be doing his best to boost her skill and confidence levels, including during Friday’s practice, before the racing action follows. Sarah is very grateful to the Focus Cup team for giving her this opportunity and very much appreciates the support she always receives from her parents.

Sarah, like most people with a passion for motorsport, is very aware that such activities have an environmental impact which we cannot ignore and this weekend she is partnering with Carbon Positive Motorsport, who work with Highland Carbon on many very worthwhile environmental projects, and hopes to emerge carbon positive.

The Croft circuit used to be a bomber base during World War 2 and has a long history with motorsport. So, if you have time to spare this weekend, why not pop along on Saturday, Sunday or even both days and enjoy what is set to be an action packed weekend, not forgetting of course to cheer on Sarah in Focus number 21 as I know she will be very grateful.