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MACLEOD WINS THE
DAY AT OULTON PARK
9 April, 2007:
British Formula Ford's new season blasted away to a dramatic start
today (Monday) at Oulton Park with a familiar team in the winner's
circle and an exciting new face atop the podium.
For the opening
round of the championship belonged to champion team Jamun Racing
Services and its new star driver, Callum MacLeod. The 19-year-old
from Northampton dominated proceedings while his rivals struggled
to find their pace, claiming pole position, a convincing race win
and a new lap record.
Alas for the
others, their chance to redress the balance in round two was
thwarted by a combination of poor weather, an over-full event
schedule and a succession of race-halting accidents in the F3 and
sports car races. Time ran out for the Formula Fordsters, whose
second race was due to close proceedings, and their event had to
be canned.
MacLeod was in a
class of his own from the word go, Callum planting his Mygale on
the pole with a qualifying time seven-tenths better than that of
his closest rival, 2006 championship runner-up Nick Tandy. Nick
might have narrowed the gap a little but for a late-session spin
into the barriers.
His crash was to
prove a further handicap come the race for, although the JTR team
worked miracles to get Nick's Ray on to the grid, its handling was
less than perfect. Although Tandy made a blistering getaway to
head MacLeod into Old Hall Corner, his tenure of the lead would
not last the lap.
Once on top MacLeod
worked hard to open an advantage, banging in a succession of
fastest laps until he had lowered Peter Dempsey's year-old mark by
1.5s. By half distance Callum was 3.6s in front.
Tandy's troubles
were compounded on the second lap when James Nash's Kevin
Mills-run Van Diemen popped past him and sped away in pursuit of
MacLeod. Nick was powerless to respond and settled in instead to a
race-long defence of third.
MacLeod was 6.5s
ahead of Nash at the chequered flag and pleased with his strong
campaign start: 'It may have looked an easy win but it was
anything but. First I had to get past Nick and then it was a
question of putting in a few quick laps to make a break. After
that I could afford to chill a little.'
His podium
colleagues agreed on MacLeod's pace. 'I just couldn't catch him,'
said Nash. Added Tandy: 'He was awesomely quick, and my car was
oversteering badly, probably a result of my qualifying accident…'
Linton Stuteley
held fourth spot in his Getem Racing-prepared Mygale for the first
third of the race until Richard Tannahill unseated him and then
Linton lost a further two places, to Jay Bridger and Marc Murray,
after a slither at the chicane. Stuteley fought back past Murray
but was unable to prevent Tannahill and Bridger from claiming
fourth and fifth at the line.
Sarah Playfair lost
ground at the start to slip to 10th but made good progress back up
the order to finish in Murray's wheeltracks for eighth, ahead of
Takashi Nagase and reigning Scholarship Champion David Brown.
Steve Roberts made
a blinding start to zoom from 11th on the grid to fifth on the
opening lap, but thereafter his progress was mostly backwards and
he ended up 11th once more, just ahead of Lee Mumford, Adrian
Campfield, James Stephen and Daniel Murray.
Matthew Payne was
the sole Scholarship Class contender - more Zetec-powered cars are
expected on the grid at the next rounds, at Donington Park in a
fortnight.
Provisional
results
British Formula Ford round 1 (of 25)
Oulton Park 9/4/2007. 11 laps / 29.61 miles
1, Callum MacLeod, UK/Northampton, Jamun/Mygale, 18m46.870s
2, James Nash, UK/Newport Pagnell, Mills/Van Diemen, +6.502s
3, Nick Tandy, UK/Bedford, JTR/Ray, +9.836s
4, Richard Tannahill, UK/Coleraine, Mills/Van Diemen, +13.456s
5, Jay Bridger, UK/Tonbridge, Jamun/Mygale, +13.751s
6, Linton Stuteley, UK/Stevenage, Getem/Mygale, +14.163s
Scholarship class: Matthew Payne / 19th overall, 10 laps
Fastest lap: MacLeod / 1m41.110s / 95.8mph. Record |
