| BOYD
& BLANCHARD DOMINATE AT OULTON
24 March, 2008:
Team-mates Wayne Boyd and Tim Blanchard gave reigning champion
team Jamun Racing the best possible start to its British Formula
Ford Championship season at Oulton Park today, Ulsterman Boyd
winning two of the day's races and Australian Blanchard taking
victory in the third to establish a slender points lead.
Although two of the
three races were shortened by accidents and some foul Easter
weather did its best to dampen proceedings, there was some
thrilling action in the best Formula Ford fashion for the Cheshire
spectators. In addition, several new drivers and teams gave clear
indications of their pace, and the likelihood is that Jamun and
its star Mygale drivers are unlikely to run away with things this
season…
The first of the
three Oulton Park openers provided a thrilling but all-too-brief
duel for victory between Boyd and Blanchard, with the race
curtailed after just six laps after a three-car crash.
The tricky damp
conditions may have caught out some but there were no mistakes
from 17-year-old Boyd, the reigning Ulster Formula Ford Champion,
nor from '07 Australian Champion Blanchard, 20. Wayne's Mygale led
away from the pole and was leading again - just - when it
mattered, as the red flags flew. "Tim gave me a bit of a hard
time, passing me on the second lap," said Wayne, "but I
managed to repass him and once I'd made a bit of a break I knew
I'd be OK."
Dane Marco Sorensen
was in close attendance throughout, but the premature end to the
race put paid to his chances of getting his Fluid Motorsport Van
Diemen in among the Mygales. The top three were covered by just
1.6s at the end.
The accident which
prompted the red flags involved the Mygales of Rogier de Wit and
James Cole, and Chrissy Palmer's Ray; the latter came off worst,
rolling and suffering major damage in the collision. Chrissy was
shaken and the 17-year-old Sussex lad was hospitalised for checks.
Matt Hamilton's JTR
Ray overhauled David Brown's Van Diemen for fourth on what turned
out to be the last lap, with Westley Barber following Hamilton
through for fifth to give the new Comtec an encouraging debut.
Brown held on to sixth ahead of Chris Maliepaard's Mygale, the
Spectrum of Aussie debutant Glen Wood, Linton Stuteley - whose
Mygale was delayed in avoidance of another's spin - and runaway
Scholarship Class victor Garry Findlay's Mygale, which placed an
excellent 10th.
A full 18 minutes
of racing in round two gave Boyd the opportunity really to
underline his pace. Wayne simply blasted away from his second pole
of the day and by the end of the opening lap had opened out a 1.5s
advantage over Blanchard, whose pursuit was vigorous but
ultimately futile.
Echoing the 2007
performances of his Jamun predecessor and reigning champion Callum
MacLeod, Boyd banged in fastest lap after fastest lap, lowering
the circuit record by half a second as he pulled clear; by the
seventh of the 11 laps Wayne was a full 5s clear of Blanchard.
"It went really well," said Boyd. "I got my head
down early and made the break, and then I was able to slow the
pace towards the end."
Blanchard was a
gracious runner-up: "Wayne drove very well," he said,
"and I need to find a little more pace in my car if I'm to
stay with him."
It might well have
been a Jamun 1-2-3, with young Brazilian Victor Correa (a spinner
in race one) keeping well in touch with his team-mates and fending
off Barber until a sixth-lap error at Knickerbrook handed third to
Sorensen. Barber's hopes of a podium finish had meanwhile ended on
the fourth lap with mechanical problems.
Correa made no
further mistakes and was able to cling on to fourth ahead of
Hamilton, with Stuteley avoiding the problems which beset him in
race one to claim sixth ahead of his Getem team-mate Maliepaard.
Brown, Wood and Adrian Campfield completed the top 10, the latter
lucky even to make the race after his KMR Spectrum required
extensive repairs following race-one damage. Findlay's hopes of
another Scholarship win came to nought on the opening lap when he
slithered off; Myerscough College entry Alex Jones took the class
honours.
Boyd made another
superb getaway in race three and pulled a useful early lead over
Blanchard once again, only to see all his hard work negated by
another safety car deployment, this time after the sleet-slicked
track triggered a multi-car crash accounting for Hamilton, Wood
and De Wit.
It all went wrong
for Boyd after the restart, Wayne out-braking himself into
Cascades and handing the lead on a plate to Blanchard. "He
sort of chucked it up the road a bit," said a grateful Tim,
"but in fairness to him the track conditions were awful and
changing every lap. I've never raced on snow before!"
Blanchard came
under severe pressure from Sorensen towards the end but failed to
yield, crossing the line to take victory ahead of the Dane by
three-tenths of a second. Brown was an excellent third, hauling
his way up from eighth on the grid and revelling in the slippery
conditions.
Campfield ended his
tricky first day with Kevin Mills Racing on a high note, taking
fourth despite late-race pressure from Barber, with Stuteley in
the Comtec's wheeltracks for sixth once again.
Correa survived a
spin under the safety car to recover to seventh, ahead of
team-mate Cole, who had been forced to sit out race two. Boyd, who
had dropped virtually to last, set fastest lap on the final tour
on his way to ninth, just ahead of Maliepaard.
There were no
errors from Findlay this time, and he claimed 11th as well as the
Scholarship class win.
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