Andy Richardson secured a brace of Scholarship class podiums and two overall top six finishes on a fraught weekend of competition as the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain made the trip to Oulton Park for the fourth meeting of the season.
The South Lincolnshire-based 21-year-old went into the weekend seeking to build on a brace of overall top three finishes in the previous round of the campaign at Thruxton, in what was only his third weekend of single-seater competition.
With the Richardson Racing team having worked to make improvements to its Ford EcoBoost-powered Mygale, confidence was high of a strong weekend, although a difficult qualifying session saw Andy forced to settle for sixth on the grid for race one.
Sadly for Andy, he was seconds late in getting his car from the paddock to the grid for race one, meaning he was forced to instead start the race from the pits. Despite setting lap times comparable with the podium runners, Andy could only work his way up as high as sixth; taking the chequered flag third amongst the Scholarship racers.
Andys hopes of a strong run in race two were effectively ended when he was tipped into a spin on the second lap at the hairpin, dropping him to the rear of the field. Despite his best efforts to work his way back up the order, a sticking throttle then halted his attempted recovery drive and forced him into retirement.
Starting sixth on the grid for race three, Andy made a solid start to climb up to fourth place and then became embroiled in a race long battle with Sam Brabham and Camren Kaminsky as he looked to maintain his position.
Despite his car starting to run hot and losing power, Andy successful defended to the finish to take fourth overall and second amongst the Scholarship racers.
Andy ends the weekend eighth in the overall standings and fourth in the Scholarship class.
Fourth in the final race was a solid result, but it was a tough end to a tough weekend, he admitted. The car was starting to get very hot and we were losing power, but I was determined that they [Brabham and Kaminsky] werent going to get through. Brabham tried round the outside at Lodge with a few laps to go, but I wasnt going to lose the position.
Overall, we cant be too upset with the end results this weekend although its a bit disappointing that the changes we made to the suspension didnt have the desired effect on track. We have work still to do, and hopefully we can schedule a test before Croft to give us the opportunity to go and try a few things that will help us to make progress.
