Scott moves ahead of JTR's Jayde Kruger in title battle
After showing great pace behind Harrison Scott in Saturday’s first Croft race, Ashley Sutton nailed his first Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship race victory in their second encounter, blasting past not only Scott but also James Abbott to do so. It was the Jamun Racing team’s first win of the year.
Falcon Motorsport driver Scott added a third-place finish in race two to his earlier victory, and with those results has eased six points ahead of JTR’s Jayde Kruger in the championship points.
Round 13 reportHarrison Scott led from pole position to chequered flag, but was spared having to defend his lead from a combative Ashley Sutton by the arrival on track of the safety car in the closing stages. Sutton had climbed from sixth on the grid to second place within six laps, and was on to Scott’s tail, and shaping up to pass, by lap nine, just before the caution period started. Sutton thus had to settle for second place and a handsome Scholarship class victory.
It was a disappointing conclusion to what was proving to be one of the best races of the season. Scott had made an impeccable start from the pole for his Falcon Motorsport EcoBoost Mygale to slot ahead of the JTR car of Max Marshall, with Radical boys Juan Rosso and James Abbott close behind and Sutton in close attendance.
Ashley made clear his intentions on the opening lap, depriving Abbott of fourth place at the Hairpin, and then on the fourth tour Rosso dived down the inside of Marshall into Tower to claim second. A lap later Sutton mimicked Rosso’s manoeuvre to push Max back to fourth, and on lap six Marshall lost even more ground at Tower and fell behind Abbott also.
Although the spots of moisture falling around the circuit, and particularly in the vicinity of Tower, were too light to be classified as a proper shower, they were certainly causing traction problems for some. Rosso lost ground at Tower on the sixth lap also and handed the opportunity to Sutton to outdrag him on the run down to the Jim Clark Esses and take second.
At the end of the sixth lap, Scott’s advantage over Sutton was 1.4s; by lap nine his lead was down to 0.259s and it was clear that Ashley, a maiden win within grasp, had every intention of making a fight of it…
Harrison was spared, and Ashley denied, by a three-car collision at slippery Tower on the 10th lap, triggered by a touch between the Meridian Mygales of Connor Mills and Connor Jupp. As their cars spun, one or both tagged the hapless Ricky Collard and all three Mygales were halted, one close enough to the track to require an intervention by the safety car.
Thus the positions at the end of the lap 10 were held under caution to the chequered flag four laps later: Scott from Sutton, Rosso, Abbott and Marshall, with Jayde Kruger sixth having broken the lap record as he tried to get on terms with the leaders.
“I was so relieved to see the safety car,” said Harrison. “It was going to be a long race with Ashley right behind me… Obviously his car was going great – he picked everyone else off and he was quick yesterday in testing – so I knew I was going to have to defend hard but I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to do that for more than a few laps. Obviously the safety car coming out when it did helped me out big time.”
Sutton was able still to smile, having collected a best-yet second place overall and a fourth Scholarship class win, plus £1000 for winning his class and making up the most places in the race. “That was really, really good,” he said. “I was trying hard to force Harrison into a mistake in the early part of the lap to allow me to get close enough to attack in the second part. It nearly worked, but the safety car stopped it.”
Falcon’s Chris Mealin was seventh overall, and second in the Scholarship class, ahead of championship returnee Louise Richardson (Richardson Mygale) and the SWB Sinter of Greg Holloway. Louise was pleased to make the podium, and to have survived a second-lap spin at the Chicane: “It was a bit of a muck-up moment. I took a bit too much kerb out of the chicane and couldn’t hold it, but my pace seemed good after that and then when they all went off I was there to pick up the pieces.”
QualifyingHarrison Scott timed his qualifying runs to perfection on the damp-but-drying Croft circuit, sitting out much of the session before launching his attack at the optimum moment and netting pole position not only for Round 13 but also for tomorrow’s live-televised Croft finale.
Scott’s best lap of 1m 20.863s was a third of a second better than his closest rival could achieve, and Harrison was delighted by his choice of tactics and pole at Croft for the second successive year: “Ricky Collard and I decided to go out at the start of the session on slick tyres to see what the conditions were like; we could see the track was drying and wasn’t really wet enough for wet tyres, so we opted to sit in pit lane and wait until the lap times started to come down. Then it was our chance… I think everyone else then had a bit of a panic and had to come in and change tyres, then get used to the slippery conditions, while we were able to crack on. I’m really pleased with how things worked out.”
JTR’s Max Marshall and Radical’s Juan Rosso disputed top spot for much of the session, Max switching from wet Dunlops to slicks towards the end of the session while Juan and his team-mate James Abbott stayed out for the duration on the dry-weather rubber. Max pulled out a quick lap towards the end to finish the session second fastest overall. Abbott out-qualified his team-mate to secure third on the grid for Round 13 and will start second behind Scott today.
