MALVERN TAKES
FOURTH SUCCESSIVE WIN AT SNETTERTON
ROUND 7,
SNETTERTON 14 MAY 2011:
Scott Malvern made it four wins from the last four races with a
masterful performance today at the newly revised Snetterton 300
circuit during round seven of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford
Championship of Great Britain.
Edging the Jamun
Racing driver ever closer to series-leading team-mate Jeroen
Slaghekke, the result - including a bonus point for the fastest
lap (a new circuit record of 1m 53.525s) - means Ilford-based
Malvern is now only 18 points shy of the Dutchman.
While it was all
smiles for Malvern, JTR's pole-sitter Geoff Uhrhane rued an engine
cut-out which robbed him of a certain second place. Exchanging the
lead with Malvern early on, the Australian slipped away slightly
past mid-distance as Scott set a string of fastest laps but
disaster struck on the penultimate tour when his engine died
without warning.
"Geoff kept me
honest the whole way; one mistake and I know he would have been
right back on me," said Malvern. "This result is
fantastic, we've got the car working really well at the moment and
I'm so happy with the team - everything is just going right in the
races for us. I'm hopeful we can go for two more wins tomorrow; I
think I have the car to do it."
Joining Malvern on
the round seven podium were Slaghekke, his fifth rostrum
appearance of 2011, and Australia's Nick McBride, his fourth
podium of the season, to make it a Jamun lock-out.
Runaway Scholarship
Class points leader Cavan Corcoran was the sole contender today at
Snetterton and so took his seventh straight victory. He ended the
race ninth overall with a strong drive, having started 13th on the
grid.
Qualifying: Uhrhane
edged out the Jamun trio of Malvern, Slaghekke and McBride during
the 20-minute qualifying session to grab pole position for today's
encounter with a great lap of 1m 53.326s, placing him 0.167
seconds clear of Malvern.
Next up was the LMS
car of Finland's Antti Buri with the fifth fastest time, just
0.006s shy of McBride on the second row but a full 0.4 seconds
ahead of Frenchman Philippe Layac's Enigma-engineered Mygale.
Matthew Parry - a
member of the Air Asia Team Lotus Driver Development Programme -
was the first non-Mygale challenger with the seventh best time in
his Fluid-run Van Diemen ahead of JTR pairing Dan de Zille and
Tristan Mingay.
Round seven:
Uhrhane made a great initial getaway from pole position at the
start of the first of the weekend's trio of races but Malvern was
able to match him on the run to Riches and, through the first
turn, the 2010 vice-champion moved ahead.
The Australian
remained tight to the tail of Malvern's Mygale though and with
fantastic drive out of Murrays at the end of the opening lap,
Uhrhane was able to slingshot past Malvern into Riches the next
time around to retake the lead.
Behind these two,
Slaghekke and McBride followed in close company with Layac in
fifth ahead of Parry and Buri. Unfortunately, a mid-pack tangle at
Riches on lap two led to delays for both de Zille and Spike
Goddard, de Zille able to make the best recovery of the two to
finish eighth in the end.
Uhrhane held the
advantage at the front into lap three, albeit with Malvern
swarming around in his wheeltracks, but mid-lap the latter made
his move to go back into the lead. The battle for third was just
as entertaining, McBride having taken the place from championship
leader Slaghekke at the end of lap two following a mistake from
the Dutchman at Coram.
As the race hit
mid-distance, Malvern began to inch away at the front and he
reeled off a series of quick laps to pull a slight gap over
Uhrhane. Slaghekke was back into third while the fight for fifth
continued to be headed by Layac.
Uhrhane lapped only
fractions slower than Malvern but it was enough for the gap to
increase to around one second as the duo pulled away from the
third place battle. Then, on lap nine, the JTR man's car
unceremoniously ground to a halt leaving the way clear for Malvern
to take a 5.5 second victory from Slaghekke and McBride.
Buri came through
well during the latter stages to take fourth place, just 0.3
seconds ahead of the impressive Neil Alberico; the American having
climbed from 12th on the grid in his Cliff Dempsey Racing-entered
Ray. Layac rounded out the top six ahead of Mingay and De Zille -
Parry having retired on the fifth tour.
"It was very
competitive out there today", said points leader Slaghekke.
"I made a mistake at Coram and that allowed Nick to make a
nice move on me. I had a fun scrap with him, got third back and
tried to catch the other guys but it was too tough. Nick came back
to challenge me and that meant I couldn't go after Scott and
Geoff. It's a good result though, congratulations to Scott for his
win."
Third placed
finisher McBride added: "It's a good result and lucky for me
Geoff had some kind of mechanical failure, that's what has got me
here. I had a good battle with Jeroen, it was clean and fair but
it let Scott and Geoff get away from us. I was really disappointed
with qualifying today but overall our pace is good."
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