Scott Malvern claimed a second Formula Ford EuroCup Champion’s trophy for his cabinet at Spa-Francorchamps yesterday, the Jamun Racing driver following up his Brands Hatch triumph of last month with two race wins and a second in the Belgian races. Geoff Uhrhane was the other race victor, the Australian JTR pilot scoring a topsy-turvy second-race win after a finish-line clash with Malvern.
Race 1Malvern’s first-race Spa victory was his “best win yet”, the 22-year-old from Essex overcoming the handicap of a 14th-place start slot.
Malvern, the current leader of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, suffered a broken gearbox in qualifying which left him two-thirds of the way down the Spa grid. Undeterred, he ploughed through the field to reach ninth on the opening lap, picked up a further three places on lap two, and then shot up to second on lap three behind early leader Jeroen Slaghekke in the sister Jamun Racing Mygale.
From there Malvern was able to pick his moment to bid for the win, passing the JTR Mygale of Uhrhane, which had by now demoted Slaghekke from top spot, through Eau Rouge on the penultimate lap. Once in front, Scott was able to pull a gap and cruise to his 10th consecutive Formula Ford race victory.
“That was my best win,” said Malvern, “and to take the record of 10 wins in a row, as well. It’s just unbelievable. The first couple of laps were really hard. The guys at the back fight just as hard as those at the front. For the lead, I managed to get a run on Geoff down through Eau Rouge and just managed to pull a gap. Sounds easy, but it wasn’t.”
Slaghekke started from the pole and led the opening lap, under pressure from Australian Uhrhane, who had started alongside, and Geoff’s countryman Nick McBride in another Jamun car. McBride pushed past both to lead on lap two before Slaghekke regained top spot on lap three. Jeroen led a six-car train of Duratec-powered machines for two laps before Uhrhane found his way in front to become the third different lap leader.
But on lap seven Geoff came unstuck through Eau Rouge and Malvern pounced: “I went in too wide and it didn’t quite work out, unfortunately,” said Geoff. “Scott was lucky then to get a break. It’s tough round here.” On his way to second Uhrhane broke the circuit lap record by four tenths of a second.
Malvern was 2.1s clear at the line from Uhrhane, with Slaghekke a disappointed third: “When you start from pole position you are never going to be pleased with third. But it was an exciting race with lots of slipstreaming. Very hectic.”
Antti Buri held second in his LMS Racing Mygale going into the final lap but slipped back, beaten to fourth by McBride, with Matt Parry, who gave the new Van Diemen LA11 an encouraging race debut, close behind in sixth. Spike Goddard led the second group home, seventh for Jamun, ahead of Philippe Layac’s Enigma Motorsport/Rendez-Vous Racing Mygale and the Dutch championship Mygales of Steijn Schothorst and Michel Florie.
Jason Down enjoyed his first Spa experience, placing 13th in the Getem Mygale, behind the cars of Bas Schouten and John Svensson.
Race 2Malvern’s extraordinary run of Duratec-powered Formula Ford victories could not go on forever, and Uhrhane was always a likely candidate to halt it, but neither driver could have foreseen the bizarre nature of Uhrhane’s second-race Spa victory, nor the narrowness of his winning margin.
Malvern proved in race one that a lowly start slot needn’t be an impediment to winning at Spa, and he set about his task with typical gusto from 13th on the grid to haul his way up to third, behind Uhrhane and Dutch championship driver Schothorst in his Geva Racing Mygale, on the opening lap.
With a track still damp from overnight rain, several drivers, notably pole-sitter Slaghekke, found the going more slippery than they expected; Jeroen completed the opening lap 11th. The Dutchman was however still ahead of his Jamun team-mates McBride and Goddard, who had been put to the back of the grid as a penalty for not observing flag signals in the first Spa race.
A furious battle involving Schothorst, Malvern and JTR’s Tristan Mingay aided the Australian’s getaway. By the time Malvern had disentangled himself and secured second place, Uhrhane was 5.6s up the road. A fifth-lap error by the JTR man cost him around four seconds, however, and gave Malvern the opportunity he needed to close in.
Going in to the final lap only half a second separated Uhrhane from Malvern. Scott went to make his move into the Bus Stop chicane: “Geoff knew I was going to make a move after Blanchimont; there is a big slipstream through there. I knew he wasn’t going to give me the inside, so I went for the outside for the right, which would give me the inside for the left. He saw it coming and blocked me, but I was there already.”
Side-by-side they sped for the finish line, but before they reached it they tangled wheels and Uhrhane spun across the line virtually backwards. The Aussie was credited with the win by just 0.047s, the closest victory margin of the season so far, and Malvern’s 10-race winning streak was at an end.
The arrival of Schothorst in a fine third was almost overlooked after the dramas; Steijn drove a great race to keep Mingay behind to the line, who in turn had Bas Schouten and Slaghekke bearing down on him, with Dan de Zille placing seventh for JTR. McBride, Jesper Egebart and Philippe Layac completed the top 10.
Race 3Malvern looked like he’d left it all too late this time. A starting position right at the back of the 21-car grid didn’t help, but slow progress through the field in the early laps meant that by the time Scott’s Jamun Mygale had made it through to fifth, the top four were long gone.
At the head of the leading train was Uhrhane, who had slipstreamed past pole man Slaghekke on the opening lap but who then failed to capitalise on his 1.2s advantage. McBride closed him down and, on lap three, passed him for a brief spell on top before Uhrhane regained the advantage by lap’s end, with McBride, Slaghekke and Antti Buri’s LMS Mygale snapping at his heels.
The squabbling allowed Malvern to catch them, of course, and, after Slaghekke assumed the lead, Malvern moved up a slot to fourth when Buri fell by the wayside on lap six. Uhrhane’s bid to regain the advantage came unstuck at the Bus Stop chicane on the penultimate lap; he left his braking too late and hit the back of Slaghekke’s Mygale, the Australian causing sufficient damage to his car to bring his race to a premature end.
And so the three Jamun team-mates - Slaghekke, McBride and Malvern - headed into the final lap tied together with a piece of string. The race was Slaghekke’s to lose: “I mis-shifted and Scott got me on the straight up to Blanchimont,” said a rueful Jeroen. “This is a slipstreaming track and it happens.”
Malvern was a gnat’s whisker ahead at the line to claim his second race victory of the weekend and with it the EuroCup Champion of Spa title and trophy, with Slaghekke holding off McBride for second spot. Less than a third of a second covered the top three.
“I got held up quite a lot on my first lap,” said Malvern, “and I could see the leaders getting further away from me. I didn’t think I’d catch them, but I saw them squabbling and managed to put in the laps to get on terms with them. When Geoff went off, that was one less person to worry about.” Malvern broke Uhrhane’s day-old lap record en route to victory.
McBride was slightly deflated by his third: “I’ve had that many podiums already, and with my breakthrough last weekend in the Dutch championship, I was hoping for a win here. It’s a little frustrating. But I hope that if I keep up the pace and keep improving then the wins will come soon.”
Steijn Schothorst completed his strong weekend with fourth place for Geva Racing, ahead of Danish championship leader Jesper Egebart’s Ray, Goddard and American Neil Alberico in the Cliff Dempsey Ray. Schouten, Mingay and Michel Florie completed the top 10.
Next weekend the EuroCup focus switched to Belgium’s other top track, Zolder, where the Formula Ford racers will be in action at the Superleague Formula event.
Provisional resultsFormula Ford EuroCupSpa-Francorchamps, Belgium 8-9/7/2011Race 1: 8 laps / 34.82 miles1 Scott Malvern GBR/Ilford Jamun Mygale 20m 03.137s / 104.18mph2 Geoff Uhrhane AUS JTR Mygale +2.115s3 Jeroen Slaghekke NED Jamun Mygale +2.262s4 Nick McBride AUS Jamun Mygale +2.808s5 Antti Buri FIN LMS Mygale +3.056s6 Matt Parry GBR/Cardiff Fluid Van Diemen +3.449s etcFastest lap: Uhrhane 2m 28.486s / 105.51mph Record
Race 2: 8 laps / 34.82 miles1 Uhrhane 20m 26.979s / 102.15mph2 Malvern +0.047s3 Steijn Schothorst NEC Geva Mygale +3.543s4 Tristan Mingay GBR/Hailsham JTR Mygale +7.242s5 Bas Schouten NED Provily Mygale +7.437s6 Slaghekke +7.573sFastest lap: Slaghekke 2m 29.482s / 104.81mph
Race 3: 8 laps / 34.82 miles1 Malvern 20m 01.830s / 104.29mph2 Slaghekke +0.275s3 McBride +0.296s4 Schothorst +14.108s5 Jesper Egebart DEN Egebart Ray +20.880s6 Spike Goddard AUS Jamun Mygale +23.493sFastest lap: Malvern 2m 28.234s / 105.69mph Record
Overall Spa EuroCup Champion: Scott Malvern
Next rounds: 16/17 July, Zolder
