|
BIRTHDAY TREAT FOR
COLE AT SILVERSTONE
16 August, 2009:
James Cole enjoyed a 21st birthday weekend to remember at
Silverstone, the season-long MSA Formula Ford Championship of
Great Britain points leader returning to the winner's circle after
a three-month absence and increasing his championship advantage.
Cole's Jamun Racing team-mate Chrissy Palmer claimed a race win on
Saturday, with Josef Newgarden taking a victory also.
Race 1
A first-lap accident involving front-runners Newgarden, Daniel
Erickson and Ben Barker, and another involving mid-fielders Fabio
Gamberini and Dan de Zille, not only wrecked the podium hopes of
those involved but also put paid to much of the promised
excitement of the 16th round of the MSA Formula Ford Championship
of Great Britain.
A lengthy safety
car period was required to clear the track of debris and, by the
time the race restarted, only seven minutes of track time
remained…
The first of the
incidents came at Abbey, where the Fluid Van Diemen of Barker
tagged the rear of Newgarden's JTR Mygale. "I locked up under
braking," said Ben, "and tapped the back of Josef's car.
It was completely unintentional." Barker made it back to the
pits with a puncture while Newgarden limped in to retire with rear
suspension damage. Pole-sitter Erickson emerged unscathed but
badly delayed.
A little behind
this, Barker's team-mate Gamberini tapped de Zille into a spin,
and Dan's Minister Mygale and Mark Harper's Inter Motorsport Van
Diemen then tangled and came to rest in dangerous positions.
While the carnage
was sorted out, another Van Diemen man, Garry Findlay, was
revelling in his good fortune, for he found himself unexpectedly
in the lead after starting from fifth on the grid. Also pleased
was championship leader Cole, who started from a lowly 13th after
braking issues in qualifying and found himself promoted to fifth
on the dramatic opening lap.
Findlay's hold on
the lead lasted only the one lap after the restart, Chrissy
Palmer's Jamun Mygale demoting Garry to second spot. Findlay
fought back with gusto but within a further lap found himself
under attack from Patrick McKenna. The Irish Jamun driver was
enjoying his best outing of the season, snatching third from the
Spectrum of Alex Jones soon after the restart and then popping
past Findlay for second two laps from the end.
Palmer held on for
his third win of the season with McKenna just seven-tenths behind
to record his best result. "It was a good race," said
Palmer. "A shame about the long safety car period, but it
helped me out a bit to be honest."
Findlay was able to
fend off Cole to retain the final podium slot while Erickson
recovered well, from ninth after the first lap, to fifth, ahead of
Jones.
Josh Benson placed
seventh in his Mygale to claim not only his best result of the
year but also his maiden Scholarship Class victory. Benson's GV
Racing team-mate Jordi Cunill was eighth, ahead of Daniel Cammish,
Josh Hill, Kieran Vernon and Gamberini.
Race 2
Palmer started on Sunday morning as he had left off on Saturday,
leading the way after he and Erickson demoted pole man McKenna to
third place on the opening lap. While Palmer tried his best to
pull away from the Spectrum of his battling Aussie pursuer,
Newgarden was yo-yoing back from a disastrous opening lap which
saw the American drop down to eighth.
Josef clawed his
way back into the top five on the second lap, then demoted Findlay
from fourth next time around and McKenna from third on lap three.
Fastest lap after fastest lap fell to the JTR man as he reeled in
the leaders.
On lap seven he
dived down Erickson's inside for second into Becketts and then
three laps later repeated the trick to wrest the lead from Palmer.
"I really messed up my start," admitted Newgarden.
"But Silverstone offers a lot of passing opportunities and I
really enjoyed getting back to the front." Newgarden's
victory margin was three seconds, but it was Erickson who claimed
second after Palmer ground to a halt with engine problems three
laps from the end.
Cole, who started
eighth, made steady progress through the pack to finish fifth
behind McKenna and Findlay, with Dan Cammish sixth overall and
back in winning ways in Scholarship Class terms. Dutch driver
Rogier de Wit claimed seventh for the Getem team - his best finish
for 11 races - ahead of Alex Jones, Ben Barker and Gamberini, who
was Cammish's closest Scholarship rival.
Race 3
Fastest lap in race two gave Newgarden the pole for the final
event of the weekend, but Josef was unable to capitalise on the
advantage and was beaten to Copse corner by McKenna. Then at
Priory Newgarden's front wheel clipped McKenna's and the JTR
Mygale was launched into collision with the closely pursuing Van
Diemen of Findlay. Garry's Van Diemen was knocked out on the spot
and Newgarden suffered suspension damage which was to blight the
rest of his race.
Cole this time
started from fifth, and James drove a blinding opening couple of
laps to latch on to his team-mate McKenna's tail. Palmer soon
joined the train to make it a Jamun 1-2-3. On lap five Cole
underlined his team's lack of driver orders with a bold move to
pass Patrick for the lead; McKenna fought back but soon had to
start defending second from the attentions of Palmer.
Cole eased away to
win by three seconds. It was the championship leader's fifth
victory of the season but his first since Rockingham back in May,
a more than suitable 21st birthday present for the Southport lad.
"Yesterday I didn't think there was a chance of this
happening," he said. "It's amazing how things can turn
around in a weekend."
McKenna was
disappointed to again miss out on his maiden win but pleased with
second and a third straight podium finish. "I didn't really
have the pace to beat James today," said the Irishman.
Palmer placed third
and de Wit continued his improving form by lifting fourth from
Barker on the penultimate lap. Erickson was sixth, Scholarship
victor Cammish seventh and Liroy Stuart eighth. Dan de Zille was
next up in the Minister car to claim his first top-10 overall
finish of the season, and Gamberini completed the top 10.
Newgarden limped home 16th.
|
