MALVERN SEALS
TITLE IN STYLE WITH YET ANOTHER WIN
25 September
2011: Jamun Racing's Scott Malvern is the 2011 Dunlop MSA
Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain title winner after
taking yet another race victory, his 17th of the year, on the
Donington Park Grand Prix circuit this afternoon.
Sealing the
prestigious crown in perfect style with his second race win of the
weekend at the 2.5-mile East Midlands track, the 22-year-old is
Jamun's seventh successive champion. As during Saturday's victory,
the Mygale driver led from lights to flag and is now in a position
to claim a remarkable total of 20 wins for the year if he can ace
all three encounters during the season finale at Silverstone in a
fortnight.
"It's been so
tough since the first round, where we had a nightmare. We had to
regroup and think about how we were going to attack it again and
the only thing we could do was win as many races as
possible," said the new champion. "The plan since then
has been all-out attack, win every race we could, and that's
happened.
"Sometimes
we've been fortunate, at other times the car has been mega and
I've done the job. Massive thanks have to go to the guys at Jamun.
The car has been amazing, it's been a mega year and I really have
to thank them."
Malvern added:
"I'd love to win 20 races in one year, that would be
fantastic and that is the goal now heading to Silverstone. More
than that, though, I'm just going to go out and enjoy the races -
I've won the championship and to go to Silverstone with no
pressure whatsoever, that will be completely new to me so it'll be
an amazing feeling.
"For next
year, we'll move on to whatever the best option is for us if we
can secure the funding. We'll have to look at Formula 2, Formula 3
or GP3. I've got to take a big jump having stayed in Formula Ford
for a couple of years. It was a risky strategy racing in Ford
again this year; we had to win lots of races and the championship
- but now we know we did the right thing."
Untroubled
throughout the rain-affected final race of the weekend, Ilford-based
Malvern won by over five seconds from JTR's Geoff Uhrhane, who
took second around the outside of fellow Australian Nick McBride
(Jamun) and Dan de Zille (JTR) at Melbourne Hairpin on lap two
with a sensational move.
Third for McBride,
who took his maiden British Formula Ford victory after a superb
battle with Malvern during this morning's 20th round, means he is
now 23 points clear of fellow Jamun runner Jeroen Slaghekke in the
battle for second position in the championship standings.
Dutchman
Slaghekke's hopes of challenging for the podium in round 21 ended
on the opening lap with a spin as he exited the left-hander at
Schwantz Curve, while dicing with McBride, which resulted in
retirement.
As Malvern
increased his lead, de Zille tried to make the early running
following a tremendous start. After being passed by LMS/Geva
Racing's Antti Buri at Schwantz on lap five for fourth place, the
JTR driver was bundled back to eighth on the seventh tour but
fought back to take seventh at the flag.
Buri had to settle
for fifth in the end as Fluid's Matt Parry came into the picture
more and more during the second half of the race and steered his
Van Diemen to an excellent top-four finish. Taking the position
from Buri at the hairpin on lap nine, he also posted the fastest
lap of the race in the process.
Visiting Dutch
racer Steijn Schothorst rounded out the top six for Geva while the
Scholarship Class victory went to already crowned 2011 Champion,
Cavan Corcoran in his Cliff Dempsey Racing-run Ray - he left it
late, though, passing the JTR Mygale of car-racing rookie Max
Marshall right at the finish to prevent the karting graduate from
taking his second win.
For runner-up
Uhrhane, his podium finish marked only his second visit to the
rostrum in the last nine races after a run of misfortune. He
commented: "At the moment I don't think we've got the pace in
the dry, the Jamun guys are very fast so that's something we need
to work harder at for Silverstone and hopefully go one
better."
McBride takes
first British Formula Ford victory in round 20
Having aced qualifying to take pole position for all three of the
weekend's races, Malvern again led away at the start of this
morning's 20th round of the season despite almost bogging down
with too much wheelspin.
McBride, starting
alongside his team-mate on the front row, was passed by Uhrhane at
Redgate but the former grabbed second place back from his
compatriot on lap two. McBride wasn't able pull away initially but
on the fourth tour he posted the fastest lap of the race as he
started to edge clear of Uhrhane who, at mid-distance, became a
target for Slaghekke.
Slaghekke piled on
the pressure into lap seven but Uhrhane did everything he could to
repel the advancing red Jamun. At Redgate on lap seven Slaghekke
went by, although Uhrhane did try to muster an immediate response.
Over the last few laps the Australian had instead to watch his
mirrors as Buri zeroed-in while Slaghekke, in third, consolidated
the place.
At the front,
Malvern's one-second lead was eroded by a resurgent McBride and,
going into the final lap, the fight was certainly on. Just 0.2s
separated the team-mates going into the last 2.5 miles of racing
and the pressure paid off at the hairpin when McBride dived to the
inside on the brakes to grab the lead and, with it, his maiden
victory. At the chequered flag, just 0.093s split the pair.
"I was pushing
like crazy", said McBride. "I didn't a good start, I got
stuck behind Geoff and we lost a bit of ground to Scott. Once I
got past Geoff I was able to catch Scott a little bit. I was able
to get on to the back of him over the last couple of laps and pull
off the pass just before we got to the chequered flag.
"I've really
enjoyed the track here at Donington, we had some bad luck before
this with car troubles so it's really good to bounce back and
finally break through for that first win - it's kind of taken the
pressure off a bit. I'm really, very happy."
With Slaghekke
third to make it a Jamun one-two-three, Uhrhane just held off Buri
by 0.2s to take fourth and de Zille rounded out the top six. Parry
finished in seventh place, which was held by Luke Williams up
until a lap eight retirement in the gravel at the Old Hairpin,
while Spike Goddard took eighth.
Schothorst was
again the best placed of the guest entries in ninth overall and
Scholarship success was Corcoran's in 11th overall, just one
second ahead of Marshall. American driver Neil Alberico was served
with a drive-through penalty for an out-of-position start and
ended the race down in 13th in his Ray.
|
