DUTCH DRIVERS
DOMINATE AS MALVERN CLAIMS EURO CROWN
ROUND 15,
ZANDVOORT 14 AUGUST 2011: Dutch team Provily Racing scored a
home track 1-2-3 today in the final race of the three Zandvoort
Formula Ford EuroCup rounds, with Scott Malvern claiming a lucky
fourth overall to score maximum points in the Dunlop MSA Formula
Ford Championship of Great Britain.
While local hero
Joey van Splunteren scored a popular race victory in front of a
massive Zandvoort crowd gathered for the Masters of Formula 3
event, Malvern was the most thankful man on the podium, for he
feared he might not finish due to a mystery misfire which beset
his Jamun Racing Mygale.
Though he led the
opening laps from pole position, Malvern was in trouble from the
outset and was powerless to prevent van Splunteren from seizing
control of the race. His fourth-place finish - added to the twin
wins he scored yesterday - was enough to earn Malvern the Formula
Ford EuroCup champion's title for Zandvoort, to add to those
already won by him at Brands Hatch, Spa-Francorchamps and Zolder.
"I didn't even
expect to get off the line," said Scott. "We changed the
ECU before the start in the hope that it would cure the problem,
but it didn't. That also meant I had no dashboard display: no rev
counter, nothing. I tried really hard in the first laps to get
away but the misfire was a constant problem and I was trying so
hard that I ruined my tyres.
"I was happy
to let the Dutch guys go past for the podium places… Fourth was
enough and I thought 'that will do'."
Malvern and the
rest of the field started on wet tyres after overnight rain soaked
the circuit, but the canny Dutch frontrunners selected older, used
Dunlops in the hope that the track would dry. Their wishes were
fulfilled towards mid-distance as the leader and Antti Buri, who
had been pursuing Malvern for all he was worth, started to fade.
Van Splunteren
swept by both on lap five to take the lead, and his example was
followed by Michel Florie for second on the penultimate lap and by
Bas Schouten on the 10th and final tour, for third. Malvern was
able to keep Buri at bay for the British championship class win.
"My tyres were overheating badly," said Antti, "and
I think Scott had the same problem. I hoped he would make a
mistake but he didn't; we were both sideways everywhere all the
time." Malvern was half a second clear of his Finnish title
rival at the line.
Nick McBride was a
disappointed sixth overall - third in the British championship
class: "It's been a fairly disappointing weekend for me after
winning in the Dutch championship earlier in the year. I just put
it down to inexperience of racing in the wet. Hopefully things
will improve for me when we get to Brands Hatch next month."
Fluid Van Diemen
driver Matt Parry survived a late-race clash with the JTR Mygale
of Geoff Uhrhane to finish seventh overall; Uhrhane's miserable
weekend ended in the pits with damage from the accident.
Of the other
British championship runners, Jeroen Slaghekke and Jake Cook were
next up for Jamun, ahead of JTR's Dan de Zille, Jamun man Spike
Goddard and Enigma/RVR racer Philippe Layac. Neil Alberico's Cliff
Dempsey Ray ended its race in the gravel at Tarzan after the
American was squeezed into contact with a Dutch runner.
As the Dunlop MSA
Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain swings back to the UK
for the closing nine races of the season, Malvern takes with him a
useful 75-point series lead.
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