Championship chaser Jayde is quickest in pre-event testing at the SpeedwayAshley Sutton second fastest in spare car
Knockhill double winner Jayde Kruger, who is bidding at Rockingham this weekend to narrow Harrison Scott’s six-point lead in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, made a good start to his campaign yesterday at the Northamptonshire speedway to top the times in pre-event testing.
Ashley Sutton, at the wheel of a spare MBM Motorsport EcoBoost Mygale after crashing his own chassis at Knockhill a fortnight ago, went fastest in the morning session but was unable to match JTR driver Kruger’s pace in the afternoon. Jayde’s pm best of 1m 17.913s was the quickest lap of the day by a 0.132s margin, with Sutton having to content himself with second spot on the timesheet.
“It went OK,” said Jayde, “but it’s not as big a gap as I’d have liked… Just a small part of the job was done today; tomorrow and Sunday are the important days. For us it’s all about getting to the business end of things and beating Harrison. That’s the aim for the weekend – to get ahead in the points.”
Championship leader Scott lost several laps of running this afternoon when his Falcon Motorsport Mygale was afflicted by a split water pipe, but he recovered towards the end of the day to go third quickest, just six-thousandths shy of Sutton. There were similar mechanical dramas for Harrison’s team-mate Chris Mealin, who managed only 11 laps in the afternoon and ended his day 12th overall.
Andy Richardson, shaking down Richardson Racing’s second Mygale chassis, crashed at turn three and briefly halted the session while his damaged car was recovered. Andy was uninjured and recorded ninth-best time of the day before the incident, eight-tenths quicker than his sister Louise.
There were good showings today from Max Marshall (JTR), Ricky Collard (Falcon) and James Abbott (Radical), all of whom were within a second of Kruger’s pace. Championship newcomer Clay Mitchell acquitted himself well on his first taste of EcoBoost power, the 17-year-old setting 10th best time for the JTR team.
Testing times Rockingham 05/09/2014 (am/pm)1 Jayde KRUGER/RSA JTR Mygale 1:18.197 / 1:17.9132 *Ashley SUTTON/GBR (Bishops Stortford) MBM Mygale 1:18.119 / 1:18.0453 Harrison SCOTT/GBR (Althorne) Falcon Mygale 1:18.610 / 1:18.0514 Max MARSHALL/GBR (North Kilworth) JTR Mygale 1:18.408 / 1:18.3135 *Ricky COLLARD/GBR (Eversley) Falcon Mygale 1:18.696 / 1:18.5046 James ABBOTT/GBR (Thurlby) Radical Mygale no time / 1:18.8447 *Michael O’BRIEN/GBR (Silverstone) MBM Mygale 1:19.344 / 1:19.0348 Juan ROSSO/ARG Radical Mygale no time / 1:19.2339 **Andy RICHARDSON/GBR (Grantham) R'son Mygale 1:19.234 / 1:19.42210 *Clay MITCHELL/GBR (Glasgow) JTR Mygale 1:21.484 / 1:19.44611 *Louise RICHARDSON/GBR (Grantham) R'son Mygale 1:20.082/1:20.37512 *Chris MEALIN/GBR (Braddan, IOM) Falcon Mygale 1:20.422 / 1:20.22313 Greg HOLLOWAY/AUS SWB Sinter no time / 1:22.240*Scholarship Class runners **Guest class
