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BOYD ON TOP AGAIN AT BRANDS HATCH

4 May, 2008: Wayne Boyd accelerated further into the overall lead of the British Formula Ford Championship this weekend at Brands Hatch, scoring a brace of impressive race wins at the Kent circuit in front of a huge audience of spectators gathered for the final rounds of A1GP.

Boyd overcame a strong challenge from Westley Barber to clinch Saturday's race and then led all the way on Sunday, once more ahead of Barber's Comtec, to increase his points lead to 45.

Boyd's Saturday race win was the hardest-fought of his short British Formula Ford career. First the 17-year-old had to overcome the disadvantage of starting from 'only' second on the grid rather than his customary pole position, and then Wayne had to find a way past the much-improved Comtec of former champion Barber, nine years and many races his senior.

Barber was in devastating form in practice, claiming the pole with the first (and so far only) sub-90 second qualifying lap of the Brands Grand Prix circuit; he was four-tenths of a second quicker than the Mygale of Boyd. Westley made a superb start to the race also, leading into Paddock Hill Bend with Boyd tucked in behind and battling to keep ahead of Adrian Campfield's Spectrum.

While Boyd was forced to defend second he had no opportunity to try to find a way past Barber. Wayne's lucky break came on the second lap through Stirling's Bend, when Chris Maliepaard's Mygale touched the back of Campfield's car and Adrian exited stage left. His pursuer delayed, Boyd was given the breathing space he needed to launch an attack on the lead, and he duly found his way around Barber at Paddock at the start of the next lap.

Campfield's excitements were not over: he held the spin and regained the track just in front of Victor Correa's Jamun Mygale; the Brazilian swerved to avoid the Spectrum and slid off himself, clouting the barriers and bumping through a gravel trap before he made it back on to the tarmac. Campfield found himself 10th and Correa 18th.

Once in clean air Boyd got his head down and went for it, banging in a succession of fastest race laps as he tried, unsuccessfully at first, to distance himself from the pursuing Barber. It was not until the ninth lap (of 12) that Wayne finally managed to put a bit of space between them. At the chequered flag he was only two seconds ahead.

"Westley was very quick today," said Wayne. "I'm really still learning this circuit, learning the quick lines, so things have gone pretty well. I made a couple of mistakes in the early laps but once I got into the lead I just kept my head down."

As the battle for the lead faded so the duel for third intensified. Maliepaard fell from the fray after his brush with Campfield and his Getem Racing team-mate Linton Stuteley took up the charge, pursued for all he was worth by Australian Champion Tim Blanchard. The Jamun driver tried everything he knew to find a way to squeeze his 2008-model Mygale past Stuteley's '06 example, but Linton had an answer for his every move.

Marco Sorensen charged up from ninth on the grid, past his Fluid Van Diemen team-mate David Brown and Maliepaard, who was suffering with gearbox problems towards the end, to take fifth. Campfield staged a brilliant recovery from his second-lap off, and drove around the disadvantage of a bent rear wishbone, to take seventh behind Maliepaard. Brown placed eighth ahead of the Mygales of Philippe Layac and James Cole.

Garry Findlay's Mygale overhauled Chrissy Palmer's Ray three laps from home to take 11th overall and the Scholarship class win. Dutch driver Rogier de Wit placed 12th and Correa recovered to 14th, behind Palmer.

With Saturday's win and a further 12 laps of circuit knowledge under his belt, Boyd was on devastating form for Sunday's race. Restored to his accustomed position, on pole, Wayne made a superb start to lead into Paddock Hill Bend and begin the charge to his 10th victory of the season. He extended his lead with every lap, set the fastest lap of the race on his fourth tour and cruised to a relatively easy six-second win. "I got a good start," he said, "and just got my head down. I was able to back off a little towards the end."

Campfield, fired up for a good race after his disappointment on Saturday, made the best start of all, from third on the grid firing past Barber to latch on to Boyd's tail through Paddock. Adrian held on in front of Barber until Westfield on the third lap. "It took me quite a time to get past Adrian," said Barber, "and once I did I just didn't have the pace to catch Wayne."

Campfield slipped back to fourth towards the end when Blanchard nipped past, but Adrian was in no mood to be denied and regained third with three laps to go, then held Blanchard to the line to score his maiden championship podium. Less than three-tenths of a second covered the cars of Campfield, Blanchard and their pursuers in fifth and sixth, Matt Hamilton and Maliepaard, at the line.

Brown took seventh ahead of his team-mate Sorensen, with Correa ninth from de Wit and Findlay, who once again took Scholarship Class honours, leading Palmer all the way.

 

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