Jamun Racing will field a four-car squad in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain and the Formula Ford EuroCup this season, with the driving strength headed by Scott Malvern, the runner-up in the Ford-backed UK championship last year.
Malvern’s switch to the multiple championship-winning team is something of a homecoming for the Essex racer, who turns 22 today (Wednesday), for in 2008 - before he began his circuit-tracing career, he was a Jamun mechanic.
Malvern joins at Jamun Jeroen Slaghekke, the Dutch driver who finished ninth in the 2010 British series in his maiden season, and Australian chargers Nick McBride and Richard Goddard. Team boss James Mundy, who is aiming for a seventh straight Formula Ford championship title, reckons it’s a strong line-up: “Scott is a good signing for us. We have known him for years and he will fit in well with the team, and he’s a very talented driver.
“We are pleased also to welcome Nick and Richard from Australia, both of whom have shown their pace in Formula Ford at home, and also Jeroen, who had an enormously promising season with us last year and who we expect to be very competitive.”
Jamun will run a quartet of 2011-specification Mygales, the chassis featuring several aerodynamic tweaks aimed at keeping the French machine a step ahead of its challengers from Juno, Ray and Van Diemen.
Malvern, whose efforts in Formula Ford earned him a coveted finalist’s place in the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, said of his return: “We did look seriously at moving on to another series, but bridging the gap in funding between British Formula Ford and any of those series has just proved too difficult in the current economic climate. I have some fantastic sponsors but like everyone else they are feeling the pinch and they just weren’t in the position to make the extra commitment. There is also an element that I have unfinished business here: I came very close to winning the title in my debut year and I now fully intend to come back and finish the job. It’s going to be a very exciting championship this year with the four-round EuroCup taking us to great circuits like Spa in Belgium and Zandvoort in Holland.”
Scott paid tribute to the Cliff Dempsey Racing Team, where he spent the first two years of his car-racing career: “It is with a heavy heart that I am moving on from CDR, as we have had some fantastic times over the past two seasons. I’d very much like to thank them and Gavin Ray for all of their help.”
The 24-round Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain gets underway at Silverstone in early April, with the four-meeting Formula Ford EuroCup, which takes in visits to Brands Hatch, Zandvoort, Zolder and Spa-Francorchamps, set for the summer months.
