Following on from his victorious start to the weekend at Snetterton on Saturday, Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain star Scott Malvern added two more outstanding wins at the Norfolk track today to boost his tally for the year to seven from nine races.
While Australia’s Geoff Uhrhane held the upper hand after qualifying for JTR, it was the Duratec-powered Jamun Racing Mygale of Malvern which thoroughly dominated in race conditions to lift him to within just four points of Jeroen Slaghekke’s championship lead.
In the first of today’s races, round eight, the 22-year-old won by almost three seconds from Uhrhane while in round nine Malvern’s lead was even more substantial before closing up over the final 2.97 miles due to a Safety Car finish. The reason for the cautionary conclusion was an engine fire in Philippe Layac’s Enigma which occurred on the penultimate lap.
“It’s absolutely mega,” said Malvern. “When we first came here testing I knew I liked the new circuit and everything has just gone right for us again. The car is under me all of the time, I know what it’ll do and that gives you a lot of confidence. Looking ahead to Brands, I have experience there from last year so we should definitely be on the front-foot.”
Uhrhane was pleased to chalk up some good points in today’s opening encounter after the disappointment of a wiring problem in round seven, which resulted in a non-finish, but yet more bad luck fell his way in round nine with a spin at Riches while defending second place.
In the Scholarship Class, Cavan Corcoran maintained his unbeaten streak of nine wins with no other contenders present at Snetterton 300 this weekend. That said, he impressed in round nine with a tremendous drive to a career-best sixth overall.
Round 8: As on Saturday, Uhrhane started from pole position, ahead of Malvern, Slaghekke, Antti Buri, Nick McBride and Matthew Parry and, as the lights went out, the Australian did well to hold his advantage at Riches from the fast-starting Malvern.
Into the infield though, the order had a shake up with Malvern back to third behind Slaghekke and into lap two the Dutchman mounted his own challenge on the JTR car of Uhrhane, but to no avail. However, Slaghekke moved through at the infield as Uhrhane was dropped to third behind Malvern.
The top three were quite well clear of the rest by this point with Parry leading the next trio ahead of Buri and McBride. In seventh place was American Neil Alberico, heading Dan de Zille, Philippe Layac and Tristan Mingay.
Slaghekke tried to extend his lead at the front as the race reached mid-distance and with Uhrhane pressuring Malvern for second it played into the Dutchman’s hands for a brief period. Malvern though soon began punching in fastest lap times and on the fourth tour he moved ahead following a costly moment for Slaghekke which dropped him to third.
Into lap five Malvern’s lead was a substantial two seconds and despite Uhrhane pushing hard and Slaghekke taking fastest lap on the sixth tour, there was no way back for them as Jamun’s dominator cruised to his sixth win of the year and fifth consecutive success.
In fact Slaghekke was quite fortunate to finish on the podium in third after a spin on lap seven at Hamilton. Luckily for him, the leaders were far enough ahead of the remainder of the pack for it not to be too much of a concern.
Further behind there was a lot of position changing during the final couple of laps and through it all appeared Jerseyman de Zille to cap an excellent drive from eighth on the grid. He ended the race 1.4 seconds to the good over Parry with McBride sixth, just, by 0.2 seconds from Buri. Jake Cook was close behind too in eighth, ahead of Philippe Layac and Neil Alberico.
Speaking on his podium return, Uhrhane commented: “Saturday was so disappointing, we had an earth wire that had come loose and that’s why the engine just died on me. These little things just don’t seem to be going our way at the moment but hopefully we can sort them all out and turn things around. Second after yesterday is great but I’m here to win races so I am disappointed still.”
Round 9: Uhrhane made another good start to the final race of the weekend but it still wasn’t enough to keep Malvern at bay - the Jamun racer slicing past at the hairpin to take the lead. Behind the front-row pairing, Finnish runner Antti Buri moved up to third ahead of Slaghekke but de Zille and Spike Goddard ended their races early with a collision at Agostini.
This resulted in the deployment of the Safety Car for a single lap. At the restart Malvern led Uhrhane, who came under massive pressure from Buri and Slaghekke. With all three as close as could be into Riches, something had to give and Uhrhane spun out of the race while trying to defend his position. The incident also caught up Mingay, who had nowhere to go.
Back at the front, Malvern led by a vastly increased margin with Buri having survived in second and McBride moving up to third. Slaghekke, meanwhile, dropped to 12th after avoiding Uhrhane’s excursion but he fought back well into an eventual finish of fourth.
With some of the more prominent championship pacesetters having fallen by the wayside, or indeed having been pushed down the order, a fantastic fight for fourth developed between Cook, Parry, Layac and Alberico.
On lap four, McBride made his move on Buri to get second place at the Esses and although under big pressure from Buri and then Parry, the Australian held on well to the runner-up spot.
“I was a little bit disappointed with the first race today, there was a first lap incident which bent the rear roll-bar, but I’m pretty happy with this one,” said McBride. “I took my opportunity when it came, I’m really happy to take second. At the end of the year every point will count so I’m pleased with this.”
Layac and Cook fought hard into the closing stages over their top five position but on the eighth tour the Frenchman’s engine caught fire leading to an immediate retirement exiting Agostini and the appearance of the Safety Car as the race clock counted down to zero.
Malvern took the win in unusual style at a very sedate pace from McBride, Buri, Slaghekke and Jesse Anttila - the Finn having performed strongly to climb from 13th on the grid. Sixth went to impressive Scholarship runner Corcoran with Cook having to settle for seventh ahead of Parry, who lost time with a spin at the Esses on lap eight. David Ellesley’s Juno and Ville Kivinen’s Ray completed the top 10.
Provisional resultsDunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great BritainRound 8 (of 24) Snetterton (300) 15/5/1110 laps / 29.70 miles1 Scott Malvern GBR/Ilford Jamun Mygale 19m 16.746s / 92.39mph2 Geoff Uhrhane AUS JTR Mygale +2.748s3 Jeroen Slaghekke NED Jamun Mygale +7.766s4 Dan de Zille JEY JTR Mygale +12.867s5 Matthew Parry GBR/Cardiff Fluid Van Diemen +14.277s6 Nick McBride AUS Jamun +15.630s13 & Scholarship class Cavan Corcoran GBR/Matlock Getem Mygale +31.897sFastest lap Slaghekke 1m 54.157s / 93.62mph
Round 9, 9 laps / 26.73 miles1 Malvern 19m 17.136s / 83.13mph2 McBride +0.384s3 Antti Buri FIN LMS Mygale +0.942s4 Slaghekke +1.314s5 Jesse Anttila FIN RaySport Ray +2.098s6 & Scholarship class Corcoran +2.531sFastest lap Malvern 1m 54.416s / 93.41mph
Provisional championship standings1 Slaghekke 220 points; 2 Malvern 216; 3 McBride 186; 4 Buri 175; 5 de Zille 152; 6 Uhrhane 145 etcScholarship class 1 Corcoran 279; 2 David Moore (GBR/Tockwith) 135; 3 Jake Jackson (GBR/Crowborough) 75.
Next rounds Brands Hatch GP, 18/19 June
