Thruxton double winner Sam hopes to close gap on championship leaders Jayde Kruger and Harrison ScottNew talent Connor Jupp joins the series with Meridian team
29 May, 2014 – With his first race wins under his belt, Sam Brabham will be out next weekend (7/8 June) to write a further chapter in the Brabham family’s racing history and to narrow the points gap between himself and the leaders of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain.
It’s been an emotional few weeks for the 19-year-old: soon after claiming his maiden car-racing victories, at the Thruxton rounds, came news of the death of Sam’s grandfather, triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham. Last weekend Sam and his father, Le Mans victor David, led a parade of famous Brabham cars around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit as a tribute to Sir Jack. Sam drove a BT24, the chassis with which the Brabham team won two Formula 1 World Championships in the mid-1960s.
“It was incredible,” said Sam. “A very, very special moment for me after everything that had happened. It was a lovely tribute – everyone lined up and they played the Australian national anthem, and it was very moving for the whole family. The BT24 was fantastic to drive: it was the first time I’d ever driven a Brabham, and in fact it was the first time I’d driven anything older than a 2008 F3 car… I’d love to race it one day; it would be amazing.”
Oulton’s trio of EcoBoost Formula Ford races – the third of which will be screened live on ITV4 on the Sunday afternoon – are uppermost in Sam’s mind now, however. He’s relieved finally to have stood atop the victory podium: “I was starting to wonder whether it would ever happen. Now that it has, I don’t think it will necessarily make things easier but I will certainly feel more comfortable about it. I failed to finish a couple of races early on and that has put us back a bit, but we made up some ground at Thruxton and just need to keep chipping away at the leaders, keep scoring podiums and hopefully more wins, and we can yet finish on top. It’s a long old season…”
In common with most of his Formula Ford rivals, JTR Mygale driver Sam has yet to race on Oulton’s 2.7-mile International circuit layout: “I’ve not driven it yet and I think it will be interesting: it will add another aspect. Bit I’m confident we can get it sussed quite quickly and be up the front like we have been all year.”
The drivers Brabham needs to catch are his JTR team-mate Jayde Kruger and Falcon Motorsport racer Harrison Scott. Kruger is the man on top of the championship currently, albeit by only three points from Scott. South African Jayde won two of the Brands Hatch rounds and a further two races at Donington Park, while Essex-based Harrison has only one win to his name, at Donington, but has amassed an enviable collection of podium finishes.
The other race winners so far are Radical Motorsport men James Abbott and Juan Rosso, both of whom have taken the honours in reverse-grid races. Both Rosso and Abbott, as well as JTR man Max Marshall, have the distinction of having finished every race in the points.
After missing the Donington Park and Thruxton races through injury, a recovering Jack Barlow is hoping to be back in action for Jamun Racing at Oulton Park, and bidding to add to the podium finish he scored in round one at Brands Hatch. He will race alongside Ashley Sutton, who impressed at Thruxton with a hat-trick of Scholarship class wins and two overall podiums on his first outing with the Kent team.
Scott’s Falcon team-mate Chris Mealin is another due to be making a comeback – the Manxman badly damaged his Falcon Mygale in the first Thruxton race, which sidelined the erstwhile Scholarship class leader. Meridian’s Connor Mills currently holds the advantage in the Scholarship division, 10 points ahead of Falcon driver Ricky Collard, with Sutton coming up fast on the rails.
Mills will have a new team-mate at Oulton in the shape of Connor Jupp. The 16-year-old student from Essex will be making his car-racing debut after many seasons of success in karting, and plans to see out the Formula Ford season with Meridian. Jupp’s kart career highlights include a trio of cadet championship wins in 2008 as well as victory in the Elf Super 1 British Championship and PF International British Grand Prix in 2010.
After missing Thruxton, promising young driver James Webb is hoping to return to the SWB Motorsport Sinter squad for Oulton alongside Aussie Greg Holloway, the fourth man to have finished and scored in every race so far. One of last year’s Scholarship class frontrunners, Andy Richardson, is meanwhile planning a guest-class return at the wheel of the Richardson Racing Mygale.
Pre-event testing for Oulton Park is scheduled for Friday 6 June, with qualifying and two races the following day and the live-TV finale on Sunday afternoon.
