8 June, 2008: Although his Jamun Racing Mygale failed to show its customary outright superiority at Snetterton today, Wayne Boyd came away from the Norfolk circuit with a win and a second place under his belt, and with an enhanced championship lead into the bargain.

Boyd, the 17-year-old from Templepatrick in Ulster, took a narrow win ahead of Matt Hamilton in the first of the day's races, but then found himself powerless to prevent a Chris Maliepaard victory in the second Snetterton sprint, the Dutchman's win for the Getem team promoting him to third in the championship standings.

The first race was a real Snetterton slipstreaming epic, with four cars nose to tail as they battled for victory in the early stages. It wasn't until well after half distance that Boyd was able to assert some superiority.

Wayne gave race dominance his best shot at the start, blasting from the second row of the grid - his lowest start slot of the season, in fact - past pole-sitter Hamilton, who made a dire getaway in his JTR Mygale. Alas for Boyd he took his team-mate Tim Blanchard with him, and Blanchard was in fighting mood, shooting past and into the lead on the second lap.

Flying Dutchman Maliepaard joined the lead battle within a further lap, dragging the recovering Hamilton along in his wake, and the four of them circulated in close company for several laps, Boyd usually at the head of the queue. The pattern was broken on lap seven, when Maliepaard's Mygale lifted second from Blanchard into Riches and then Hamilton attacked Maliepaard at the Russell chicane to make second his. As his pursuers squabbled, Boyd wasted no time in "getting his head down" and building a proper lead.

Within a couple of laps Wayne was two seconds ahead and, though Hamilton drove an inspired race to whittle away at the gap, Boyd still had eight-tenths in hand at the chequered flag, where he claimed win number 11 of his season. Hamilton was rueing his tardy start: "I just had too few revs, made a lousy start and that spoiled my race completely."

Maliepaard was a further four seconds behind for third spot, with Brazilian Victor Correa pushing his team-mate Blanchard back to fifth at mid-distance and holding on in fourth despite heavy pressure from the Australian. Adrian Campfield's Spectrum claimed sixth ahead of David Brown and Marco Sorensen in their Van Diemens and Linton Stuteley's Getem Mygale. Tenth, and the leading Scholarship Class finisher, was Garry Findlay, whose Mygale overhauled early class leader Chrissy Palmer on the sixth lap.

In race two, Boyd, second on the grid this time, repeated his superb getaway just as pole man Hamilton messed his up once again, and it was the Spectrums of Adrian Campfield and Glen Wood which pursued Wayne in the opening stages, with Blanchard fourth and Maliepaard fifth, up from seventh on the grid. Hamilton slipped back to 10th with an error at the Esses.

Boyd had little difficulty in opening a two-second lead over his pursuers by the third lap, but getting any further away was going to prove impossible thanks to Maliepaard, who made short work of Blanchard and who then seized second by passing both Campfield and Wood on the fourth lap.

The Dutchman then set about chipping away at Boyd's lead, a tenth or two or lap, until by the 12th of the 16 tours the two Mygales were nose to tail and Wayne's world was under the biggest threat it has seen all year. On the Revett Straight for the 13th time Chris slipstreamed past and into a hard-fought and well deserved lead. Boyd stayed close but had no answer: "We just didn't have the pace this weekend, so a win and a second is a good result."

Maliepaard was delighted with his third, and sweetest victory: "I have no words for this… The whole team has been working so hard for this moment all year. It's fantastic."

Blanchard moved up to third, past the battling Spectrums, on the fifth lap and stayed there to the chequered flag, with Campfield a fortunate fourth after both Wood and Correa fell from the fray while heading him. Hamilton recovered from his first-lap dramas to creep up the order, but was denied fifth on the final lap by Linton Stuteley, who put in a sterling performance from 14th on the grid.

Sorensen took seventh, just ahead of Scholarship victor Findlay, with Rogier de Wit taking ninth - a small reward for the Dutch driver, who suffered a heavy qualifying accident in his JTR Mygale and who started from the very back. James Cole, Brown and Palmer rounded out the top 12.

*It was a good day at Snetterton for former Formula Ford racers. Ireland's Michael Devaney claimed two British Formula 3 wins, his and Mygale's maiden victories in the championship, while Nick Tandy, last year's British Formula Ford third-place finisher, qualified his Mygale on the front row of the grid and raced to seventh in the first of the day's races. Reigning British Formula Ford Champion Callum MacLeod made his F3 debut at Snetterton today also.

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