SLAGHEKKE &
MALVERN SHARE BRANDS HATCH HONOURS
ROUNDS 17 &
18, BRANDS HATCH 4 SEPTEMBER 2011: It was a day of mixed
fortunes for runaway championship leader Scott Malvern at Brands
Hatch - he saw his 13-race winning streak brought to a close in
the first race of the day but then recovered in the afternoon to
take his 15th victory of the season and a new record for the
number of wins in a season. With only six races remaining in the
Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, Malvern's
stranglehold on the title continues to strengthen.
It was Jeroen
Slaghekke who brought Malvern's unbeaten run to an end in the
first of the day's Brands Hatch encounters. Pole-sitter Slaghekke
(Jamun Racing Mygale) made a good start but was still beaten away
by team-mate Malvern, who led into Paddock Hill Bend. Malvern's
start was adjudged to have been too good, however, and he was
afforded a drive-through penalty. Slaghekke, unaware of Malvern's
penalty, tried to force a way past Scott and did so heading up to
Druids on lap four, diving through on the inside.
Malvern's penalty
dropped him to last place and he tried to work his way into
contention, but with Scott otherwise occupied Slaghekke was able
to dominate the race and scored his second win of the year.
"I made a better start than yesterday," he said,
"but I knew Scott had jumped it because he was ahead of me. I
didn't see his penalty board as I was focusing on passing him. I
figured he would get a penalty but I still wanted to pass
him."
Behind Slaghekke,
Geoff Uhrhane ran second (JTR Mygale) from team-mate Dan de Zille,
while Nick McBride (Jamun Mygale) fended off Antti Buri (Geva
Racing Mygale) for fifth place. Buri attacked at Druids on lap
eight and squeezed by on the inside to secure fourth place and
then charged after the leading group, but McBride was struggling
with a mysterious electrical problem that was causing his car to
cut out. As a result he lost time to the pack ahead and was caught
by Linton Stuteley (Enigma Motorsport Mygale).
As the two cars
came out of Clearways, McBride's car cut out and he was hit by
Stuteley, who then ploughed wide into the Clark Curve gravel trap.
McBride suffered a puncture, but with a dead engine he was a
retirement.
He wasn't the only
Australian in strife as Uhrhane spun out of second place with two
laps to go, the JTR-run Mygale then unable to rejoin the race.
That allowed de Zille up to second after a barren spell of podium
results, with Buri assuming third place.
Behind the podium
finishers, Luke Williams drove an excellent race on his return to
the class after a sizeable accident at Oulton Park at Easter.
Williams and his Mygale took fourth after a great fight with Spike
Goddard (Jamun Racing Mygale), who was fifth from Matt Parry's
Fluid Motorsport Van Diemen.
Chrissy Palmer
(Jamun Racing Mygale) took seventh from Tristan Mingay's JTR
Mygale, ahead of Philippe Layac (Enigma Motorsport Mygale), who
was delayed when he tangled with Neil Alberico (Cliff Dempsey
Racing Ray) at Graham Hill Bend. Alberico retired with broken left
rear suspension. Malvern recovered to 10th, helped not just by his
own pace but by the retirements of others, and the championship
leader also set the fastest lap of the race in his recovery drive.
Scott Malvern took
his 15th win of the British season after a tremendous tussle for
second place allowed the championship leader to escape. His
amazing win tally is a new record for the championship in a single
season.
Malvern made a good
start from second on the staggered grid while his Jamun Racing
Mygale team-mate Jeroen Slaghekke made a poor start and fell to
fourth behind Geoff Uhrhane (JTR Mygale) and Antti Buri (Geva
Racing Mygale). As Uhrhane attacked Malvern, Buri needed to defend
third from a frustrated Slaghekke, who tried to unsettle the Finn.
Buri, though, had other ideas and maintained the pressure on
Uhrhane, who started to defend more strenuously.
As Uhrhane defended
from Buri, Malvern broke away and took a comfortable win but
Uhrhane became the focus of attention as he had a four-car train
queued up behind him. Uhrhane defended resolutely from Buri, but
the Finn was also trying to keep the recovering Slaghekke at bay.
The Dutchman made a bold move charging up to Druids and ran around
the outside as they went through the hairpin. That put Slaghekke
on the inside for Graham Hill Bend and he then nipped ahead as
they dropped through the left-hander.
That put the
Dutchman on the tail of Uhrhane, who was still able to maintain
second place despite intense pressure. Slaghekke, rueing his poor
start, tried everything he knew to grab second away from Uhrhane
but the Australian was made of stern stuff and hung on to the
place. "I didn't have the pace today to stay with Scott but
the boys pushed me very hard. It was good to get second place
after all that pressure."
Slaghekke never
stopped trying and challenged all the way to the flag, darting
around in Uhrhane's mirrors and trying to force a mistake that
never came. The Dutchman took third from Buri, while Nick McBride
(Jamun Mygale) took fifth. Luke Williams took sixth, closing on
the leading group towards the end, while seventh fell to Matt
Parry's Fluid Motorsport Van Diemen. JTR team-mates Dan de Zille
and Tristan Mingay took eighth and ninth in their Mygales ahead of
Chrissy Palmer, while casualties of the Brands Hatch gravel were
the two Enigma Motorsport Mygales of Linton Stuteley, who went off
at Paddock, and Philippe Layac, who slid off at Druids.
The man of the day,
though, was Malvern with his record-breaking 15th win of the
championship. "That's the record I was hoping for. I'm
running out of space for all the trophies now!" he said.
"The start was very difficult as Geoff and the others were
all over me and I tried to put my head down and get away. It was a
tough race to begin with but once I got a break I was able to
build the gap."
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