Following the successful supporting races at the Zandvoort Masters of Formula 3 event in the Netherlands earlier this month, the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain joins the bill for another headline European event next weekend (3/4 September).
This time Brands Hatch in Kent is the venue for the Ford-backed championship for Duratec-powered cars, with Britain’s best-supported junior single-seater category sharing the limelight with the DTM, the German touring car championship.
With just nine races remaining to decide the outcome of the 2011 Formula Ford title, the stakes couldn’t be higher for championship leader Scott Malvern as the Ilford-based racer prepares for a home-track appearance for himself and for Rochester-based Jamun Racing Services.
Malvern will arrive at Brands Hatch with a healthy 75-point lead and a 12-race unbroken run of victories in the British series which stretches back to Easter’s Oulton Park event. Along the way he has picked up a clean sweep of 2011 EuroCup trophies for the events held at Brands in June and at Spa-Francorchamps, Zolder and Zandvoort, and now stands on the brink of becoming the seventh consecutive Formula Ford champion for Jamun and Mygale.
However, the title is not yet quite within Malvern’s grasp: he knows that not only are his rivals creeping ever closer to him in performance terms but also that even one non-finish in the remaining nine races could severely dent his title aspirations.
Scott’s team-mates Jeroen Slaghekke and Nick McBride are an ever-present threat; Dutch driver Slaghekke is overdue another win and Aussie McBride is eager for his first UK Formula Ford success. Then there is Finn Antti Buri, who finished right in Malvern’s wheeltracks in all three of the Zandvoort rounds. It’s Antti’s third Formula Ford season and a UK win cannot now be far away.
JTR’s Australian pilot Geoff Uhrhane has had an up and down sort of season, with only a couple of British series podiums since his April win at Silverstone. He did beat Malvern to the line in one of Spa’s July Eurocup races, however, and is looking to bounce back from a disappointing time at Zandvoort, as is his JTR team-mate Dan de Zille.
The Mygale chassis has had a stranglehold on the podium but there are signs that the new LA11 Van Diemen is getting closer to the sharp end - Fluid Motorsport’s Matt Parry was on strong form in Holland - while the Cliff Dempsey Racing team will next weekend field a twin-Ray team with 12-time Scholarship class winner Cavan Corcoran joining American Neil Alberico on the strength.
France-based English teenager Matt Rao returns to the championship at Brands Hatch, with the Fluid Van Diemen driver set to challenge Corcoran in the Scholarship division.
Brands Hatch will also mark the competitive return of Linton Stuteley after two seasons away. The 25-year-old from Hertfordshire’s last full season in Formula Ford was in 2008, and since then he has concentrated on running others through his Enigma Motorsport team, including current charge Philippe Layac.
“I wanted to help Philippe as a team mate,” said Linton, “share data with him and so on, and also Martin Down of Getem Racing had a car available and he wanted to test some development parts, so it was a perfect fit. It’s definitely not the start of a full-time return to racing, though.”
Further returnees expected in Kent include Luke Williams, who has been out of action since damaging his Mygale at Oulton Park; Tristan Mingay, whose broken elbow has recovered sufficiently to allow him to return to the cockpit of his JTR Mygale; and, joining Stuteley in the guest class, Chrissy Palmer, the 2008 Scholarship Champion, who is to drive the Jamun Mygale campaigned this season by Jake Cook.
Provisional championship placings after round 151 Scott Malvern GBR/Ilford Jamun Mygale 399 points2 Nick McBride AUS Jamun Mygale 3243 Antti Buri FIN LMS Mygale 3054 Jeroen Slaghekke NED Jamun Mygale 2945 Geoff Uhrhane AUS JTR Mygale 2346 Dan de Zille JEY JTR Mygale 228 etc
Scholarship class1 Cavan Corcoran GBR/Matlock Getem Mygale 3722 David Moore GBR/Tockwith Tockwith Ray 1353 Jake Jackson GBR/Crowborough Tockwith Ray 754 Matt Rao GBR/Levignac Fluid Van Diemen 54
