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OUT OF 4 FOR MACLEOD AT THRUXTON
26 August, 2007:
Callum MacLeod edged closer to the British Formula Ford
Championship title at Thruxton this weekend, scooping a hat-trick
of race wins to nearly double his points lead. Nick Tandy was the
only man to spoil what could easily have been a MacLeod clean
sweep, winning Saturday's race to maintain his strong late-season
form.
Nonetheless Callum
left Hampshire with his championship lead over second place man
James Nash extended to 110 points, with seven races remaining.
The Bank Holiday
weekend Thruxton format featured four helpings of British Formula
Ford action - the three scheduled races plus the Easter Monday
event held over from Oulton Park. Among the highlights for the
junior drivers was a pre-event pep talk from former World Champion
Nigel Mansell, who was at Thruxton in support of his sons' Formula
3 exploits.
Saturday
afternoon's 14-lapper was the best race of the season so far, with
five cars vying for the lead for much of the distance. There might
have been six at the party but for the retirement of Nash, whose
Van Diemen broke a driveshaft on the warming-up lap.
MacLeod led away
from the pole in his Jamun Racing Mygale but was soon under attack
from Tandy's JTR Ray, which slotted into the lead through the
Campbell/Cobb/Segrave complex after a superb start from third on
the grid. MacLeod had no intention of giving up easily, however,
and slipstreamed back into the lead up Woodham Hill.
Nor was Tandy in
any mood to capitulate, Nick launching a series of assaults on the
championship leader culminating in a daring sixth lap outbraking
manoeuvre into Club. His line through the tricky chicane
compromised, MacLeod found himself pushed back to third as Linton
Stuteley's Mygale forced its way past also.
Next time around
MacLeod slipped to fourth thanks to Steve Roberts in the Kevin
Mills Van Diemen, with Jay Bridger's Fluid Mygale snapping at his
heels.
Tandy looked to
have matters well under control but blotted his copybook on his
10th time through the Club chicane, running wide and allowing
MacLeod, who had meantime repassed both Roberts and Stuteley, to
latch back on to his tail. Callum wasted no time in slipstreaming
back into the lead.
Lesser drivers
might have crumbled but Tandy was in no mood to be denied; Nick
clawed his way back on to MacLeod's tail and, on the penultimate
lap, seized the lead once more to capture his fourth win of the
year. "To win a race like that is a beautiful feeling,"
said a delighted Tandy.
MacLeod, who was
beaten back to third at the last corner by the determined
Stuteley, said he was playing it conservatively: "I took no
risks - it wasn't worth it for a couple of championship
points." He added that his Mygale had had superior pace,
which was evidenced by his lowering of the circuit lap record.
Two seconds covered
the top four at the line, Roberts beating a down-on-power Bridger
to fourth to record his best finish of the season, despite a
last-lap lock-up. David Brown helped himself to sixth by
overhauling Marc Murray after Marcus Weller spun, with Sarah
Playfair following Murray home to take eighth. Weller recovered to
ninth ahead of Adrian Campfield.
A strong showing
from Freddie Hunt, son of late World Champion James, saw the JTR
Ray pilot running ninth before he was tapped into a spin at the
chicane on the 10th lap; Freddie came home 15th. Iranian driver
Kourosh Khani claimed an unopposed Scholarship Class win.
Linton Stuteley
fought back from pre-race illness to lead the opening laps of
Sunday morning's opener, making the most of his pole position
advantage, but the Getem Racing driver then found himself bumped
back to fifth by his determined pursuers - MacLeod, Nash, Tandy
and Roberts.
Tandy passed Nash
for second at mid-distance and shattered MacLeod's hours-old lap
record as he reeled in the leader's Mygale. But then Nick undid
all his good work two laps from home with an error at Segrave
which cost him his victory hopes.
As MacLeod romped
to an untroubled 2.2-second win - his ninth of the season - Tandy
was left to fend off Nash and salvage second place. James was less
than a second behind to claim his 10th podium result of the
season, with Roberts fourth once more, the under-the-weather
Stuteley fifth and Murray sixth.
Brown drove a
lonely race to seventh after Bridger's demise with mechanical
problems while Weller recovered from another spin to take eighth
ahead of Campfield. Takashi Nagase pinched 10th from Hunt on the
last lap; 11th was nonetheless Freddie's best finish of the year.
Khani took the Scholarship Class honours once again.
Formula Ford
newcomer Elliott Mason - who placed a commendable 13th on his
debut on Saturday - was the victim of an opening lap fracas which
left his JTR Ray on the sidelines.
Just as in the
previous races it was a MacLeod v Tandy battle in the weekend's
third thriller, with the two title protagonists swapping the lead
lap after lap as they slipstreamed their way around Thruxton's
ultra-fast bends. Time and again Tandy overhauled MacLeod during
the opening part of the lap only for MacLeod to slipstream back to
the front up Woodham Hill towards the Club chicane.
Tandy repeated
MacLeod's Woodham Hill trick on lap four to lead over the line,
was repassed, and then staged an audacious move up the inside at
Church on the seventh tour to take top spot once again.
Next time around it
was MacLeod's turn to snatch the lead, and on this occasion the
championship leader made it stick. Callum was under intense
pressure, however, locking up into the chicane on several
occasions as he strived to keep Tandy at bay. MacLeod completed
the 14 laps just two-tenths ahead and said: "That was an
extremely tough race, very close and very clean, and this time it
was my turn to lead when it mattered."
Tandy had hoped to
head MacLeod long enough to slow him down and thus allow
third-placed Roberts to join the fight but "I was never in
front for long enough". Roberts was delighted with his first
podium of the year but added: "I was disappointed to be
watching the lead battle and not to be a part of it."
Nash couldn't live
with the pace of the first three but took a comfortable fourth
ahead of Murray, who got the better of Stuteley for fifth at mid
distance. Playfair ousted Weller from seventh half-way through,
with Brown recovering from an opening lap spin, which had dropped
him to last, to claim ninth ahead of Campfield. Khani completed a
hat-trick of Scholarship Class wins.
There was
disappointment for Hunt, who continued his progress to hold a
personal-best seventh before the pursuing Mygale of Bridger and
Freddie's Ray made contact at the chicane; both spun out on lap
five.
The fourth and
final race, the 'Oulton replacement race', brought MacLeod's third
win of the weekend and his 11th of the season, achieved with a
comfortable seven-second margin after Tandy, the only man able to
live with Callum's pace, was forced into the pits with a tyre
problem.
Tandy had made a
charging start from fourth on the grid to overhaul Stuteley, Nash
and then MacLeod within a quarter of a lap but it was not long
before Nick began to feel the effects of a slow puncture.
MacLeod seized
control from him on the third lap and three laps later Tandy's car
was in the pits and undergoing a time-consuming wheel change.
As Callum romped
home a furious battle for second between Nash, Bridger and
Stuteley held the crowd enthralled. James kept his pursuers behind
his Van Diemen until two laps from the end, when Bridger popped
past.
A last-corner bid
to regain second went wrong for Nash - unable to make the chicane
he straightlined it over the kerbs and thus Bridger claimed his
best finish of the year with second. Nash recovered in time to
keep Stuteley at bay.
Murray pinched
fifth from Roberts on the penultimate lap, with Brown, Playfair,
Nagase, Roger Orgee, Philippe Layac and Jamie Jardine rounding out
the top 12. Tandy made it to the line after his stop to take 15th
and the final championship point.
Provisional
results
British Formula Ford round 16 (of 25)
Thruxton 25/8/2007. 14 laps / 32.98miles
1, Nick Tandy, UK/Bedford, JTR/Ray, 18m16.689s
2, Linton Stuteley, UK/Stevenage, Getem/Mygale, +0.874s
3, Callum MacLeod, UK/Northampton, Jamun/Mygale, +1.267s
4, Steve Roberts, UK/Whitchurch, Mills/Van Diemen, +2.010s
5, Jay Bridger, UK/Tonbridge, Fluid/Mygale, +3.478s
6, David Brown, UK/Glasgow, Mills/Van Diemen, +10.449s
Scholarship class: Kourosh Khani, IR/London/Van Diemen, 17th / +1m
18.224s
Fastest lap: MacLeod 1m17.036s / 110.09mph Record
Round 17 / Thruxton
26/8/2007. 14 laps / 32.98miles
1, Callum MacLeod, UK/Northampton, Jamun/Mygale, 18m04.307s
2, Nick Tandy, UK/Bedford, JTR/Ray, +2.237s
3, James Nash, UK/Newport Pagnell, Mills/Van Diemen, +3.153s
4, Steve Roberts, UK/Whitchurch, Mills/Van Diemen, +8.824s
5, Linton Stuteley, UK/Stevenage, Getem/Mygale, +12.009s
6, Marc Murray, ZA/Sudbury, Jamun/Mygale, +12.385s
Scholarship class: Kourosh Khani, IR/London/Van Diemen,16th
+1m21.083s
Fastest lap: Tandy 1m16.358s / 111.07mph Record
Round 18 / Thruxton
26/8/2007. 14 laps / 32.98miles
1, Callum MacLeod, UK/Northampton, Jamun/Mygale, 18m13.319s
2, Nick Tandy, UK/Bedford, JTR/Ray, +0.212s
3, Steve Roberts, UK/Whitchurch, Mills/Van Diemen, +2.009s
4, James Nash, UK/Newport Pagnell, Mills/Van Diemen, +4.272s
5, Marc Murray, ZA/Sudbury, Jamun/Mygale, +7.456s
6, Linton Stuteley, UK/Stevenage, Getem/Mygale, +10.645s
Scholarship class: Kourosh Khani, IR/London/Van Diemen, 16th
+1m23.434s
Fastest lap: MacLeod 1m17.011s /110.13mph
Round 2* / Thruxton
26/8/2007. 13 laps / 30.63miles
*Held over from Oulton Park 9/4/2007
1, Callum MacLeod, UK/Northampton, Jamun/Mygale, 16m48.071s
2, Jay Bridger, UK/Tonbridge, Fluid/Mygale, +7.236s
3, James Nash, UK/Newport Pagnell, Mills/Van Diemen, +7.286s
4, Linton Stuteley, UK/Stevenage, Getem/Mygale, +7.513s
5, Marc Murray, ZA/Sudbury, Jamun/Mygale, +15.162s
6, Steve Roberts, UK/Whitchurch, Mills/Van Diemen, +15.476s
Fastest lap: MacLeod 1m16.704s / 110.57mph |
