13 April, 2008: Ulster sensation Wayne Boyd swept the board at Knockhill, claiming a hat-trick of impressive British Formula Ford Championship race victories - all three from pole position and two of them in difficult circumstances - to recapture the overall lead of the Ford-backed series.

At the wheel of his Jamun Racing Services-prepared Mygale, 17-year-old Boyd, from Templepatrick, was in a class of his own in the first two Knockhill races and bounced back to win the third after a scary off-track moment.

He was more than pleased with his weekend's work: "It's been really good," he said, "and the car has been fantastic all weekend. The first two races weren't really a problem but the third was not so straightforward - basically I was a passenger in the car when it hit some oil and that dropped me back to third. But I managed to make it up by the end."

Boyd's domination of Saturday's fourth round of the championship was near total, Wayne leading every inch of the way from pole position, through some difficult weather conditions and a safety car period, to the chequered flag. That he missed out on the extra point for fastest lap - which went to his team-mate, Tim Blanchard - was more down to the deteriorating weather than oversight on his part.

Effectively, Boyd won the race on the startline, beating off a determined challenge from Westley Barber's Comtec, which had started alongside him from the front row. Wayne was well in command by Scotsman corner, with Linton Stuteley's Getem Racing Mygale bumping Barber back to third on the opening lap; Linton was powerless to prevent Boyd from pulling a two-second gap within a matter of four laps, however.

A collision involving the cars of Matt Hamilton and Glen Wood, which left Wood's Spectrum beached, brought out the safety car and saw Boyd's handsome lead reduced to nothing. Wayne kept his head, however, and handled the restart impeccably. Fate had more to chuck at the leader in the shape of a hailstorm three laps from the end but even that failed to prevent Boyd's third win of the season, by nearly three seconds over Stuteley.

"It was a cracking race," said Linton. "When the hail came it made it very difficult indeed. It was all I could do to keep the car on the circuit."

The race was shortened by a lap or so thanks to the weather, conditions which led to a number of cars, including that of championship newcomer Callum Holland, leaving the circuit. The red flags flew at precisely the right moment for Barber, whose engine let go in spectacular style on the finish line, but who nonetheless claimed third place.

David Brown might have been fourth, after a strong fight from 10th on the grid at his home circuit, but for an error which cost his Fluid Motorsport Van Diemen two places on what turned out to be the final lap. His team-mate Marco Sorensen took fourth in his place. Blanchard's lap record-breaking drive to fifth after a dire start, which left him languishing 13th on the opening lap, was the performance of the race.

The top 10 was rounded out by Victor Correa's Mygale, Adrian Campfield's Spectrum, and the Mygales of James Cole and Philippe Layac. Holland's exit gifted the Scholarship class to Alex Jones's Myerscough College-prepared Van Diemen. The unhappiest driver in the field was Dutchman Chris Maliepaard, whose 17th birthday present - third on the grid - was followed by a startline shunt.

Sunday's opening race enjoyed much better track and weather conditions but the result was the same: another Boyd benefit. Wayne once again drove away from Stuteley at the start, pulling almost a second ahead on the opening lap, and then sped into the middle distance. "I tried as hard as I could to make a gap straight away," said Boyd. "I pushed like mad and fortunately we had the pace to do it." He won by a 5.7-second margin on this occasion.

Impressive though Wayne's metronomic performance was, the spectators had eyes only for the duel over second between Stuteley and Maliepaard, the former getting the better start to head his team-mate, and the battle for sixth, which at its peak involved no fewer than eight cars.

Maliepaard drove brilliantly for someone with so little experience of Knockhill and British racing in general to snatch second away from Stuteley at the Real Radio Hairpin on the 12th lap, and held on in front for a lap and a half until Linton's greater experience won the day. Third was nonetheless a great result for the Dutch driver; unhappily it was snatched away from him when his car failed to start in post-race scrutineering.

Blanchard thus made the podium, the Australian Champion passing Barber and picking up a further place when his team-mate Correa ran wide at Carlube Corner. Barber took fourth, Correa fifth and Brown sixth after surviving a brush with the car of Hamilton. Matt recovered to seventh ahead of Cole, Campfield and Sorensen. Holland was a surprised Scholarship victor - his Van Diemen was one of only two class finishers, a lap down after he had served a pit-lane drive-through penalty for corner cutting.

Boyd was hoping for a repeat domination of Knockhill's third instalment, and all the signs were in the opening laps that he would get his wish. By lap three Wayne was a second clear of his closest pursuer, Barber, and was looking uncatchable.

Fate intervened on the fourth lap, however, when Rogier De Wit's JTR Mygale veered off the track at Butcher's and back on again, clouting his team-mate Layac's car. Jamie Jardine's Comtec became embroiled and, somewhere along the line, a quantity of oil was dropped on the circuit which sent Boyd slithering off the circuit. He regained the track third, behind Barber and Blanchard, and had then to endure a six-lap safety car period for recovery of the crashed cars, which by now included Sorensen's Van Diemen, which had also found the oil.

At the restart Barber held on in front of the massing Mygales of Blanchard and Boyd for a lap, until he too came unstuck at Carlube and ploughed into the gravel. Through Hislop's and into the hairpin Boyd unseated his team-mate and restored himself to a richly deserved lead.

Blanchard never said die but had to settle for second by a six-tenth margin, with Correa making it a Jamun 1-2-3 with his best finish of the season. Brown took fourth ahead of Stuteley, Campfield and his improving Spectrum, Hamilton, Wood and Maliepaard, Chris finally salvaging some points after a difficult weekend with a spirited drive to ninth from the back of the grid.

Cole came next, just ahead of Jones, whose dying Van Diemen coughed and crept its way across the line for Scholarship honours half a second in front of Holland.

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