Ricky Collard moves to second in Scholarship Class Championship after Thruxton.
It was a weekend of high octane drama for Oxfordshire based Falcon Motorsport. The third race weekend of the 2014 Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain at Thruxton saw Harrison Scott momentarily rise to the top of the leader board and a consistent points-scoring event for Ricky Collard takes him to P2 in the Scholarship Class. However, race one saw Chris Mealin thankfully walk slowly away from a high-speed impact that ended his race meeting prematurely on Saturday afternoon.
With favourable sunny weather beating down for the first May Bank Holiday weekend, the trio of Falcon Motorsport drivers took to the track early on Saturday morning for qualifying. Sam Brabham snatched a pole time that was a quarter-second faster than the time set with Harrison Scott in testing at Thruxton last month, however Scott could only extract a time good enough for P4 on this occasion. Ricky Collard was seventh overall by a fraction, with Chris Mealin just behind in eighth.
Having qualified in fourth, 18 year old Essex-based Scott made a superb start to race one and charged his way past Championship leader Jayde Kruger through the narrowest part of the chicane at the end of the first lap. “He wasn’t giving me any room and I wasn’t going to let him stop me from coming through,” said Scott. “It was a move I had to make and it worked out for me.”
Another magnificent start by team mate Mealin saw the 20 year old Manxman gain four places to sit right on the tail of Kruger. However, at the end of lap two, Mealin’s front wheels tangled with the JTR man’s rears and his Falcon Mygale flipped and speared backwards into the barriers at high speed. Mealin was quickly out of the car, shaken, bruised and his weekend over, with Kruger also forced to retire for the race.
“I made the perfect start and got the right amount of wheel spin off the line. I knew that I just needed to keep my head cool and get in to the rhythm. Everyone ahead of me went defensive at the first chicane, so I thought I’d try a move around the outside and it worked at treat!” said Mealin.
“I was up to fourth by the end of the first lap and was getting the perfect tow off Kruger coming up to Church; I was right on his gearbox all the way up the straight. I then tried to make a move on the inside when all I saw was blue sky. I slammed on the brakes, but I was just going too quickly with all the speed I was carrying. I shut my eyes and felt the impact and the next thing I saw was grass. I shut my eyes again and it all ended quickly to be honest. It is obviously not how I wanted to start the weekend; we had more pace in the car than we’d shown and I think it would have been a great weekend to get more points. But I’ll be back at Oulton Park, fighting hard.”
Collard came home in a disappointing ninth after a brief pit stop to repair his wing due to an early touch with Connor Mills in the opening lap.
Scott made a superb start to claim a place on the opening lap of reverse-grid race two. Running in a tight pack with Rosso and Marshall ahead and Brabham behind him, Scott maintained position until the chequered flag 17 laps later. His third place podium finished returned him to the top of the Championship leader board with a good points margin ahead of mid-field race finisher Kruger. Ricky Collard returned to the Scholarship class podium to claim a second place trophy with his eighth-place overall finish ahead of Class Championship rival Connor Mills.
Race three on Sunday afternoon was action packed and frustrating for the Falcon team. Scott maintained P3 for the first 14 of the 17 laps, waiting for a gap to take on front runners Brabham and Kruger. But Scott’s luck was about to change. At the end of the 15th lap as he, and Ashley Sutton behind him, rounded the Club chicane he found the slower-moving, backmarker Greg Holloway on the racing line. Scott skilfully avoided contact, but half spun to continue in P7 until the finish line.
It was Ricky Collard’s turn to enjoy a race-long battle which resulted in a satisfying podium for the 17 year old from Hampshire. He played his trump card up Woodham Hill on the approach to the last corner of the race and took Mills for eighth place overall and second in the Scholarship class. “It felt really good, it was a really interesting and fun race,” said Collard. “But I feel that we should have been competing much higher up than we were this weekend. It was the first time we didn’t have the pace, but racing’s like a rollercoaster, one weekend you’re fast and one you’re not. We scored some valuable points that we lost at Donington and we are now right up there in the Scholarship Championship. This weekend was purely ‘be consistent, finish every race, bank some points’ and then go to Oulton Park and really give some magic back again.”
Nick Streatfield, team owner, Falcon Motorsport concluded:“It has been a big up and down weekend. Obviously with Chris’ accident on Saturday, we’ve had our highs and lows, and we are extremely relieved that he is ok. We are still doing well in the Championship; it was a bad third race for Harrison, but a great race for Ricky as he was able to get past the guys he was battling with and he is now second in the Scholarship Class. We’ve still got a bit of work to do with the cars; we’re not quite there, but we are still fighting hard and we’ll be back out there at Oulton Park.”
