TOP BRANDS HATCH
DATE LOOMS FOR FORMULA FORD
25 August 2011:
Following the successful supporting races at the Zandvoort Masters
of Formula 3 event in the Netherlands earlier this month, the
Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain joins the
bill for another headline European event next weekend (3/4
September).
This time Brands
Hatch in Kent is the venue for the Ford-backed championship for
Duratec-powered cars, with Britain's best-supported junior single-seater
category sharing the limelight with the DTM, the German touring
car championship.
With just nine
races remaining to decide the outcome of the 2011 Formula Ford
title, the stakes couldn't be higher for championship leader Scott
Malvern as the Ilford-based racer prepares for a home-track
appearance for himself and for Rochester-based Jamun Racing
Services.
Malvern will arrive
at Brands Hatch with a healthy 75-point lead and a 12-race
unbroken run of victories in the British series which stretches
back to Easter's Oulton Park event. Along the way he has picked up
a clean sweep of 2011 EuroCup trophies for the events held at
Brands in June and at Spa-Francorchamps, Zolder and Zandvoort, and
now stands on the brink of becoming the seventh consecutive
Formula Ford champion for Jamun and Mygale.
However, the title
is not yet quite within Malvern's grasp: he knows that not only
are his rivals creeping ever closer to him in performance terms
but also that even one non-finish in the remaining nine races
could severely dent his title aspirations.
Scott's team-mates
Jeroen Slaghekke and Nick McBride are an ever-present threat;
Dutch driver Slaghekke is overdue another win and Aussie McBride
is eager for his first UK Formula Ford success. Then there is Finn
Antti Buri, who finished right in Malvern's wheeltracks in all
three of the Zandvoort rounds. It's Antti's third Formula Ford
season and a UK win cannot now be far away.
JTR's Australian
pilot Geoff Uhrhane has had an up and down sort of season, with
only a couple of British series podiums since his April win at
Silverstone. He did beat Malvern to the line in one of Spa's July
Eurocup races, however, and is looking to bounce back from a
disappointing time at Zandvoort, as is his JTR team-mate Dan de
Zille.
The Mygale chassis
has had a stranglehold on the podium but there are signs that the
new LA11 Van Diemen is getting closer to the sharp end - Fluid
Motorsport's Matt Parry was on strong form in Holland - while the
Cliff Dempsey Racing team will next weekend field a twin-Ray team
with 12-time Scholarship class winner Cavan Corcoran joining
American Neil Alberico on the strength.
France-based
English teenager Matt Rao returns to the championship at Brands
Hatch, with the Fluid Van Diemen driver set to challenge Corcoran
in the Scholarship division.
Brands Hatch will
also mark the competitive return of Linton Stuteley after two
seasons away. The 25-year-old from Hertfordshire's last full
season in Formula Ford was in 2008, and since then he has
concentrated on running others through his Enigma Motorsport team,
including current charge Philippe Layac.
"I wanted to
help Philippe as a team mate," said Linton, "share data
with him and so on, and also Martin Down of Getem Racing had a car
available and he wanted to test some development parts, so it was
a perfect fit. It's definitely not the start of a full-time return
to racing, though…"
Further returnees
expected in Kent include Luke Williams, who has been out of action
since damaging his Mygale at Oulton Park; Tristan Mingay, whose
broken elbow has recovered sufficiently to allow him to return to
the cockpit of his JTR Mygale; and, joining Stuteley in the guest
class, Chrissy Palmer, the 2008 Scholarship Champion, who is to
drive the Jamun Mygale campaigned this season by Jake Cook.
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