MALVERN CLAIMS
SPA EUROCUP CROWN
SPA-FRANCORAMPS
10 JULY 2011: Scott Malvern claimed a second Formula Ford
EuroCup Champion's trophy for his cabinet at Spa-Francorchamps,
the Jamun Racing driver adding a further win and a second place
yesterday to his Friday victory. Geoff Uhrhane was the other
victor, the Australian JTR pilot scoring a topsy-turvy second-race
win after a finish-line clash with Malvern.
Race 2
Scott Malvern's extraordinary run of Duratec-powered Formula Ford
victories could not go on forever, and Geoff Uhrhane was always a
likely candidate to halt it, but neither driver could have
foreseen the bizarre nature of Uhrhane's second-race Spa victory,
nor the narrowness of his winning margin.
Malvern proved in
race one that a lowly start slot needn't be an impediment to
winning at Spa, and he set about his task with typical gusto from
13th on the grid to haul his way up to third, behind Uhrhane and
Dutch championship driver Steijn Schothorst in his Geva Racing
Mygale, on the opening lap.
With a track still
damp from overnight rain, several drivers, notably pole-sitter
Jeroen Slaghekke, found the going more slippery than they
expected; Slaghekke completed the opening lap 11th. The Dutchman
was however still ahead of his Jamun team-mates Nick McBride and
Spike Goddard, who had been put to the back of the grid as a
penalty for not observing flag signals in the first Spa race.
A furious battle
involving Schothorst, Malvern and JTR's Tristan Mingay aided the
Australian's getaway. By the time Malvern had disentangled himself
and secured second place, Uhrhane was 5.6s up the road. A
fifth-lap error by the JTR man cost him around four seconds,
however, and gave Malvern the opportunity he needed to close in.
Going in to the
final lap only half a second separated Uhrhane from Malvern. Scott
went to make his move into the Bus Stop chicane: "Geoff knew
I was going to make a move after Blanchimont; there is a big
slipstream through there. I knew he wasn't going to give me the
inside, so I went for the outside for the right, which would give
me the inside for the left. He saw it coming and blocked me, but I
was there already."
Side-by-side they
sped for the finish line, but before they reached it they tangled
wheels and Uhrhane spun across the line virtually backwards. The
Aussie was credited with the win by just 0.047s, the closest
victory margin of the season so far, and Malvern's 10-race winning
streak was at an end.
The arrival of
Schothorst in a fine third was almost overlooked after the dramas;
Steijn drove a great race to keep Mingay behind to the line, who
in turn had Bas Schouten and Slaghekke bearing down on him, with
Dan de Zille placing seventh for JTR. McBride, Jesper Egebart and
Philippe Layac completed the top 10.
Race 3
Malvern looked like he'd left it all too late this time… A
starting position right at the back of the 21-car grid didn't
help, but slow progress through the field in the early laps meant
that by the time Scott's Jamun Mygale had made it through to
fifth, by the third tour, the top four were long gone.
At the head of the
leading train was Uhrhane, who had slipstreamed past pole man
Slaghekke on the opening lap but who then failed to capitalise on
his 1.2s advantage. McBride closed him down and, on lap three,
passed him for a brief spell on top before Uhrhane regained the
advantage by lap's end, with McBride, Slaghekke and Antti Buri's
LMS Mygale snapping at his heels.
The squabbling
allowed Malvern to catch them, of course, and, after Slaghekke
assumed the lead, Malvern moved up a slot to fourth when Buri fell
by the wayside on lap six. Uhrhane's bid to regain the advantage
came unstuck at the Bus Stop chicane on the penultimate lap; he
left his braking too late and hit the back of Slaghekke's Mygale,
the Australian causing sufficient damage to his car to bring his
race to a premature end.
And so the three
Jamun team-mates - Slaghekke, McBride and Malvern - headed into
the final lap tied together with a piece of string. The race was
Slaghekke's to lose: "I mis-shifted and Scott got me on the
straight up to Blanchimont," said a rueful Jeroen. "This
is a slipstreaming track and it happens…"
Malvern was a
gnat's whisker ahead at the line to claim his second race victory
of the weekend and with it the EuroCup Champion of Spa title and
trophy, with Slaghekke holding off McBride for second spot. Less
than a third of a second covered the top three.
"I got held up
quite a lot on my first lap," said Malvern, "and I could
see the leaders getting further away from me. I didn't think I'd
catch them, but I saw them squabbling and managed to put in the
laps to get on terms with them. When Geoff went off, that was one
less person to worry about." Malvern broke Uhrhane's
day-old lap record en route to victory.
McBride was
slightly deflated by his third: "I've had that many podiums
already, and with my breakthrough last weekend in the Dutch
championship, I was hoping for a win here. It's a little
frustrating. But I hope that if I keep up the pace and keep
improving then the wins will come soon."
Steijn Schothorst
completed his strong weekend with fourth place for Geva Racing,
ahead of Danish championship leader Jesper Egebart's Ray, Goddard
and American Neil Alberico in the Cliff Dempsey Ray. Schouten,
Mingay and Michel Florie completed the top 10.
Next weekend the
EuroCup focus switched to Belgium's other top track, Zolder, where
the Formula Ford racers will be in action at the Superleague
Formula event.
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