Formula Ford Rounds 5 and 6 thrill the Donington crowds

The Formula Ford battle continued at Donington Park on Sunday – Harrison Scott mastered the tricky wet conditions of the fifth round of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship at Donington Park to secure his first win of the short season for the Falcon Motorsport team, but the Essex youngster was denied a second win today by mechanical problems. The Donington finale instead fell into the lap of Jayde Kruger, Saturday’s race victor, to give him win number four and the championship lead.

The day’s star driver was 17-year-old rookie Connor Mills, who charged through the field in the wet race to claim second place overall, right on Scott’s tail, in his Meridian Mygale, and who then went on to complete a hat-trick of Scholarship class wins.

Round 5 Report:

A pre-event downpour brought unpredictability and excitement by the bucket load to Donington Park this morning with Harrison Scott notching up his maiden win of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship season and Connor Mills stealing the show and the Scholarship class honours with an impressive drive to second place.

Though the rain had ceased by the time the lights flashed to start Round 5, Dunlop’s grooved wet-weather tyre was the obligatory choice. Given the previously dry conditions on Thursday and Saturday at Donington, chassis set-up was a less clear-cut option and several competitors found their cars a handful.

By dint of his sixth-place finish yesterday, JTR’s Max Marshall started the reverse-grid race from the pole but the Leicestershire driver couldn’t convert the advantage on his home track. Juan Rosso, who started second, took the lead through Redgate in his Radical Mygale and quickly built a sizeable lead.

After a slow start from P4, Scott moved into third place on the second lap as Jayde Kruger erred and the South African slipped behind both Harrison and James Abbott. Then two laps later, through the Craner curves, Scott got the better of a long fight with Marshall to move up to second. By the end of lap five Rosso’s lead over Scott was 4.0s but within a further lap the Argentinian’s advantage had been halved and Harrison was zeroing in on the leader. Juan, struggling for grip, had to give way to the inevitable on the eighth lap and cede top spot to Harrison.

“The conditions changed a lot during the race,” said Juan. “It dried out a lot and I was going slower and slower and slower. It was my fault: I couldn’t find the braking points and my cornering speed went down and down…”

But the victory battle was not yet settled: Mills, who started seventh, was a man on a mission and was revelling in the slippery conditions at the wheel of his Meridian Mygale. He made the top five by lap five and picked off both Abbott and Marshall on the next lap to assume third. Within five laps Connor had caught and passed Rosso and was beginning to look a threat for the lead. Had the race lasted a couple more laps the outcome might have been different, but Scott had enough left in reserve to put in the fastest lap of the race on his penultimate tour and take his first win of 2014 by a 4.5s margin.

“I had a bad start, getting boxed in a bit at the first corner, but then I was able to push, the car felt good and I was able to pick them off one by one,” said Harrison. “The track was really greasy and getting worse as the race went on, but things couldn’t have been much better for me really.”

“I loved the conditions,” said Mills. “The whole weekend I’ve been saying that I wanted it to rain, and I got my wish. The car was perfect and it couldn’t have gone better. If I had started a bit further up the grid then maybe I could have challenged for the win.”

A disappointed Rosso held on in front of his Radical team-mate Abbott for third and his second podium visit of the season, with Sam Brabham salvaging fifth. Sam had found the conditions particularly tricky – he spun on his out lap on the way to the grid. “We just had the wrong set-up,” he said. “We thought it would be a lot drier out there than it turned out, and that cost us. Fifth is an OK result in the circumstances.”

Brabham’s JTR team-mates Kruger and Marshall suffered equally badly, finishing sixth and seventh respectively. Mills’s team-mate Bobby Thompson made it a Meridian 1-2 in the Scholarship class thanks to his eighth-place finish. Falcon men Ricky Collard and Chris Mealin both suffered gearbox issues and struggled home ninth and 10th, ahead of James Webb (SWB), Ovie Iroro (Richardson Racing) and Greg Holloway (SWB).

Round 6 Report:

With three different leaders and drama on every lap, the final race of the Donington Park weekend provided ITV4’s live cameras and the raceday spectators with some gripping entertainment. Jayde Kruger led home his team-mate Max Marshall for a second JTR 1-2 of the weekend, with Connor Mills driving excellently yet again to make it a hat-trick of Donington Scholarship class wins for himself and the Meridian team.

Round five victor Harrison Scott started from pole but it was Sam Brabham who edged in front into turn one, Redgate corner. Sam judged his getaway perfectly and just managed to inch in front of Scott’s Falcon Mygale, with Kruger tight up behind for third. Jayde and Harrison squabbled throughout the opening lap and a half, allowing Brabham to make a decent break.

Alas for Sam it all went wrong for him at the Old Hairpin as he rounded it for the second time – a wheel on the dirt unsettled the JTR Mygale and Brabham spun across the track and into the gravel trap. “I had an awesome lead as well…” said a disconsolate Sam.

Scott took the lead and ran with it, quickly putting half a second on his pursuer Kruger. Then, on the eighth lap, a puff of smoke from the back of Harrison’s car indicated that he too was not destined to win… “Just one of those things,” said Harrison, who had to pull off and out of the race. “At least it happened while I was leading and after I had set fastest lap.”

Kruger could not believe his good fortune. The South African was careful not to take any extra chances – particularly since the track was made slippery by fluid which leaked from Scott’s car – and stroked it home to win by two seconds from Marshall to collect the £1000 winner’s prize. “Christmas came early for me!” said Jayde. “I was having a big battle with Harrison and Sam was getting away… Then he went off and a couple of laps later Harrison had his problem and the race came to me. Any points are good points and we’ll take them any way they come. It’s all about points, if we can just keep accumulating them like this we should be in front come the end of the season.”

Second overall was Marshall’s best-yet finish in Formula Ford, all the more sweet for coming at his home track. “We’ve had the pace for this all year and it’s nice finally to make it to the podium,” said Max. “It was very slippery out there, especially after Harrison went out with his problem, so I’m pleased to have made it back in one piece.”

There was no shortage of drama elsewhere in the field. Radical team-mates Juan Rosso and James Abbott collided at Redgate on the fourth lap, James spinning into the gravel but managing to extricate himself and complete the race well down. Falcon team-mates Ricky Collard and Chris Mealin came to grief at the same spot on lap seven while disputing the Scholarship class lead – Ricky dummied left and then jinked right to dive down Chris’s inside but there was contact and Collard’s race was over.

Mealin held the class lead from the start, and rose to third overall for a spell after the demise of Brabham and Scott, but slipped back after a couple of errors. Rosso took third from him on lap 11 and then Chris ran very wide at Coppice on lap 14 to hand fourth place, and the Scholarship class lead, to Mills.

Connor, whose championship campaign got off to a dire start at Brands Hatch last month due to mechanical issues, was delighted to win the class and claim a best-yet fourth overall. “I didn’t get a great start and the car took a couple of laps to settle in but after that it felt good and I tried to pick my moments and stay out of trouble,” said the Essex 17-year-old. “It was a very good race for me, in fact the whole weekend has been brilliant. After Brands we came here to try to get some points back and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that.”

His Meridian team-mate Bobby Thompson was second Scholarship finisher and fifth overall. “Considering it’s my first weekend in a single-seater I’m pretty happy with the way things have gone – it’s a big confidence boost and I hope to do some more,” he said. Mealin recovered from his off to take sixth, with James Webb a best yet seventh in the SWB Sinter, ahead of Abbott and Greg Holloway, who was fortunate to get going again after his Sinter was pushed off track on the opening lap. Novice racer Ovie Iroro was his assailant, the Nigerian the first retirement of the race as a result of damage caused to his Richardson Racing Mygale.

Round 5 Provisional Results:

Donington Park – 15 laps / 29.68 miles

1 Harrison SCOTT/GBR (Althorne) Falcon Mygale 20m 08.884s / 88.40mph

2 Connor MILLS/GBR (Upminster) Meridian Mygale +4.508s

3 Juan ROSSO/ARG Radical Mygale +11.056s

4 James ABBOTT/GBR (Thurlby) Radical Mygale +14.929s

5 Sam BRABHAM/GBR (Banbury) JTR Mygale +18.332s

6 Jayde KRUGER/RSA JTR Mygale +24.379s etc

Fastest lap: Scott 1m 18.249s / 91.05mph

Scholarship class: 1 Mills; 2 Bobby THOMPSON/GBR Meridian Mygale; 3 Ricky COLLARD/GBR Falcon Mygale etc

Round 6 Provisional Results:

18 laps / 35.62 miles

1 KRUGER 20m 43.414s / 103.13mph

2 Max MARSHALL/GBR (North Kilworth) JTR Mygale +2.044s

3 ROSSO +4.071s

4 MILLS +14.068s

5 THOMPSON +19.000s

6 Chris MEALIN/GBR (Braddan, IOM) Falcon Mygale +28.503s etc

Fastest lap: Scott 1m 07.173s / 106.06mph

Scholarship class: 1 Mills, 2 Thompson, 3 Mealin etc

Provisional Championship Placings:

1 Kruger 158 points; 2 Scott 133; 3 Abbott 126; 4 Rosso 125; 5 Marshall 120; 6 Mealin 86 etc

Scholarship class 1 Mealin 109; 2 Mills 96; 3 Collard 83 etc

Buckle up for the next rounds as the FF paddock heads to Thruxton on the 3/4 May. Photos by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

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