Formula Ford – KRUGER WINS BRANDS

Jayde Kruger claimed his second victory of the short Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship season at Brands Hatch this afternoon, JTR’s South African star overhauling Harrison Scott 10 laps from the end of the weekend finale to take the win, and with it a slender championship lead.

Scott had led confidently from pole position all the way up to that point, getting the better of Kruger away from the line and keeping him at bay. Unfortunately for Scott, an incident between his team-mate Ricky Collard and JTR’s Max Marshall brought out the safety car for three laps, and Kruger got the jump at the restart.

There was contact between Kruger and Scott on the final safety car lap. The incident was investigated by race stewards but no action was deemed necessary. Kruger was clear about events: “Just before the restart Harrison braked sharply through Clark Curve. He was trying to back me up and then pull a gap on me before the startline and we touched… Then he made a mistake through Paddock Hill Bend, ran in too fast, ran wide and I came up the inside.

“I would’ve been happy enough with second place,” added Jayde, “but this win has just helped us along a little bit more. I’m glad to have put Brands Indy behind us and now to be heading for longer, faster circuits which should suit us even better.” Kruger went on to cross the line with 1.1s in hand.

After he was passed by Kruger, Scott also fell behind the cars of Juan Rosso and Sam Brabham. Said Harrison: “The pack closed up under the safety car and at the restart I got a big hit from Jayde going into the final corner. That sent me wide and on to the dirty part of the track, through all the rubbish, which got on to my tyres and slowed me up… Once I had fallen behind everyone, my tyres started to clean up and my pace was OK again.”

Harrison’s misfortune was handy for both Rosso and Brabham, neither of whom had hitherto enjoyed much luck at Brands Hatch. Juan had been bottled up behind Marshall up to the 12th lap, and once past Max found himself some way behind the leading duo. Having passed Harrison for second, Juan battled with Brabham to defend it to the flag, and was delighted to emerge on top: “It’s good after everything that has happened this weekend, good for me and good for the team. Everybody happy.”

Brabham was equally delighted to have salvaged a podium from his weekend, which began with promising pace shown in testing but suffered a blow with a race-one accident with Rosso. Scott followed Rosso and Brabham home for fourth place.

Fifth might well have gone to either Marshall or Collard, but they came together at the Druids hairpin on unlucky lap 13 when Ricky dived up Max’s inside and was squeezed out. Collard was left stranded mid-track but Marshall was able to get his race underway once again.

Jack Barlow had an eventful race too, recovering from a mare of a start to battle back from dead last to eighth by lap eight. He picked up two more places from Collard and Marshall and then despatched Abbott for fifth position with nine laps to run. Marshall limped home behind Abbot for seventh.

With Collard’s demise the Scholarship class lead fell into the lap of his Falcon team-mate Chris Mealin, who more than rose to the challenge of keeping Meridian Racing twins Connor Mills and Ashley Sutton behind him. “I had to give it my all,” said the Manxman. “The last five minutes of the race seemed to take forever and I just had to keep calm and carry on. My tyres were just about gone and the car was sliding everywhere. I have to say huge thanks to all the guys at Falcon for a great job throughout the weekend.”

After two driveshaft-related retirements, Mills was delighted just to have made the end of the race, let alone to have claimed Scholarship second: “Every lap that passed I was worrying about whether the car was OK but the team did such a great job for me that everything was perfect this time.”

Mealin, Mills and Sutton completed the top 10, with Louise Richardson and her Richardson Racing team-mate Ben Constanduros next up, ahead of SWB Sinter men James Webb and Greg Holloway.

Star turns at Brands Hatch

There were star performances up and down the Formula Ford field at Brands Hatch, particularly from those new to the championship. Ricky Collard, in his first-ever car races, impressed with two scholarship class victories for Falcon Motorsport, with his team-mate Chris Mealin claiming the third Scholarship win. Jamun’s new signing Jack Barlow meanwhile made the podium on his first Formula Ford race.

James Webb, who turned 16 just a week ago, showed great maturity to bring his SWB Sinter safely home in each of the three races, despite his pre-weekend familiarity with it being limited to a half day of testing.

Ashley Sutton was the blameless victim of a potentially nasty qualifying accident which left him with a damaged Mygale and a bruised elbow. His Meridian mechanics did sterling service to get him to the grid for race one and he repaid them with a Scholarship class podium despite the loss of sixth gear towards the end.

Louise Richardson meanwhile became the first-ever female to race an EcoBoost Mygale, overcoming mechanical problems in qualifying to make the top 10 in race one and collect the £500 improver’s award.

Round 3 provisional results: Brands Hatch Indy:

1 Jayde KRUGER/RSA JTR Mygale 20m 32.371s / 88.21mph

2 Juan ROSSO/ARG Radical Mygale +1.147s

3 Sam BRABHAM/GBR (Banbury) JTR Mygale +2.624s

4 Harrison SCOTT/GBR (Althorne) Falcon Mygale +3.430s

5 Jack BARLOW/GBR (Hastings) Jamun Mygale +3.817s

6 James ABBOTT/GBR (Thurlby) Radical Mygale +6.133s etc

Fastest lap Scott 46.022s / 94.48mph

Scholarship class

1 Chris MEALIN/GBR (Braddan, IOM) Falcon Mygale

2 Connor MILLS/GBR (Upminster) Meridian Mygale

3 Ashley SUTTON/GBR (Bishops Stortford) Meridian Mygale

Provisional Championship Standings

1 Jayde KRUGER/RSA 79

2 Harrison SCOTT/GBR 77

3 James ABBOTT/GBR 66

4 Jack BARLOW/GBR 64

5 Max MARSHALL/GBR 59

6 Juan ROSSO/ARG 57 etc

Scholarship Class

1 Ricky COLLARD/GBR 59

2 Chris MEALIN/GBR 58

3 Ashley SUTTON/GBR 48 etc

Next round the teams head to Donington Park 19th/ 20th April

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