Dan Cammish completes a perfect victory run in the first half of the 2013 Formula Ford seasonHarrison Scott and Nico Maranzana second and third in Croft finale
Dan Cammish finished his home-race weekend in the way that he started it, claiming another commanding victory at Croft in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain. It was his 15th win on the trot and, with the series now at the half-way stage, the JTR Mygale driver goes into the extended summer break with a 150-point lead over his closest rival, the equivalent of five race victories.
Starting from his 14th pole position of the season (he missed out on pole honours for the first Croft race on Saturday), Cammish made a perfect getaway to lead Jamuns Nico Maranzana by two seconds by the end of the opening lap. Nico gifted second to Falcon Motorsports Harrison Scott with an error at the chicane on lap two, and Dan extended his lead to 3.3s. But by mid-distance Scott was starting to make inroads into the leaders advantage.
Half-way through I saw that the gap was closing, said Harrison, and the team was giving me signals to keep pushing, but I think by then I had used the best of my tyres in trying to catch him. Scott was 6.7s behind at the line for his fourth second-place finish, and fifth Scholarship class victory, of the season. Its a good result and it shows that we have the potential to catch Dan. Hopefully I can now go away and take a bit of a break and then get some testing in to make sure I come back sharp.
Said Cammish of his record-extending 15th consecutive win: I got a really good start but then I think Harrison was pegging me for a while. Ive struggled all weekend to get the final sector of the lap right, and the final corner in particular: I just dont like it. He seemed always to catch me on that bit but then I had the legs on him around the rest of the lap. He added that he had plenty with which to occupy himself in the summer pause: I have all sorts in the pipeline. Ill be keeping myself fit, keeping motivated and will come back strong after the break.
Maranzana beat off a challenge from his Jamun team-mate Sam MacLeod to retain third and collect his third podium finish of the Croft weekend - a great way for the Argentinian to celebrate his 18th birthday. It was a good gift for me on my birthday weekend - now I go back to Argentina to celebrate with my family, said Nico.
Poor Lassi Halminen looked set for a strong fourth after taking advantage of an error from Sam MacLeod at the hairpin on lap six, but the Finns gear lever became detached five laps later and he had to retire. Guest driver MacLeod was returned to fourth, ahead of Juan Rossos sister Jamun Mygale.
Jayde Kruger made great progress from the back of the grid to battle up to sixth, with Andy Richardson seventh after his family team rebuilt his car overnight following his second-race startline incident. Wei Fung Thong collected eighth for Falcon Motorsport, ahead of JTR men Camren Kaminsky and Sam Brabham. All three JTR cars were carrying a tribute to Allan Simonsen, the former Danish Formula Ford Champion, who was killed at Le Mans yesterday. Radical Mygale driver James Abbott completed the top 10.
Rob Shield was the other retirement, the SWB Sinter guest driver exiting the race on the opening lap after a slide into the barriers at the Complex.
The teams and drivers now have six weeks to regroup before the championship returns to action at Snetterton at the beginning of August.
Provisional resultsDunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great BritainRound 15 (of 30) 23 June 2013, Croft15 laps / 31.87 miles1 Dan CAMMISH / GBR (Leeds) JTR Mygale 20m 28.586s / 93.40mph2 Harrison SCOTT / GBR (Althorne) Falcon Mygale +6.766s3 Nico MARANZANA / ARG Jamun Mygale +10.878s4 Sam MACLEOD / GBR (Hertford) Jamun Mygale +11.987s5 Juan ROSSO / ARG Jamun Mygale +15.789s6 Jayde KRUGER / RSA Jamun Mygale +17.227s7 Andy RICHARDSON / GBR (Grantham) Richardson Mygale +19.096s etcScholarship class 1 Scott; 2 Maranzana; 3 RichardsonFastest lap Cammish 1m 20.948s / 94.50mph
Provisional championship standings1 Cammish 461 points; 2 Maranzana 311; 3 Scott 303; 4 Rosso 230; 5 Kaminsky 217; 6 Brabham 213; 7 Abbott 210; 8 Richardson 179 etcScholarship: 1 Scott 244; 2 Maranzana 240; 3 Brabham 164; 4 Richardson 101 etc
Next rounds 3/4 August Snetterton
