Sutton snatches Snetteton Formula Ford double

Forced to settle for a third-place finish in Saturday’s round of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, there was no stopping Ashley Sutton yesterday as he romped to twin wins in Norfolk in his EcoBoost Mygale. Sutton sliced through from third on the grid in the first of the day’s battles, and then led from pole to chequered flag in the second.

There were podium finishes  for Ricky Collard, Max Marshall, and for championship protagonists Harrison Scott and Jayde Kruger, with Jayde finishing second to Sutton in the finale to claw back some of the points lost to Scott in earlier races. After 18 rounds, Harrison now leads Jayde by 14 points.

Ashley Sutton (above) claimed his second win of the season, storming to the front of the reverse-grid race on the second lap and romping home to win by more than 11 seconds, smashing the circuit lap record as he went. It was an impressive display by the MBM Motorsport EcoBoost Mygale driver, who took his maiden win at Croft in late June and who placed third in yesterday’s Snetterton race. The Hertfordshire racer started third on the grid behind the cars of Radical Motorsport’s James Abbott and Falcon Motorsport man Ricky Collard; he despatched Collard at turn three on the opening lap and then took advantage of Abbott’s lack of grip through Riches on lap two to claim the lead.

By the end of the second lap Sutton was 1s clear of Collard and he continued to pull further ahead of him with every lap. In addition to his outright victory, Ashley also claimed the Scholarship class honours for the eighth time this year and a £1000 prize.

“My second win is every bit as good as my first,” said Ashley. “I think they’re all as good as each other! I tried to go around the two of them at the hairpin on the opening lap, but it didn’t quite work out and I managed to pass only Collard that lap. Then on the next lap James ran a little wide into turn one so I was able to pass him into turn two; after that it was just a case of maintaining the gap…”

Collard may have been unable to get on terms with the winner but he enjoyed an unthreatened run to second place, his best-yet finish and his first overall podium visit since the start of the season at Brands Hatch. “This feels like a win to me,” said the Falcon man. "We are improving all the time and getting our heads around the car’s cooling system and it is coming on in leaps and bounds. If we can get some other technical issues sorted we will be on terms with Ashley and fighting for wins.”

The battle for third was the highlight of the race. After being passed by Sutton and Collard, Abbott held third briefly but was powerless to prevent championship front-runners Harrison Scott and Jayde Kruger from overtaking him also. “We made a lot of changes to the car last night,” said James, “and one of them happened to have the effect that I had no grip in turn one. I didn’t find that out until the first lap… By the time I discovered where the grip was I was down the order.”

Scott and Kruger battled like demons from the third lap to the chequered flag to settle the podium outcome, with Scott having an answer for every trick the South African ace tried to pull. They crossed the line separated by a tenth, with the Falcon man in front to gain a further two points on his title rival. “He drove a wide car, that’s for sure,” was Kruger’s post-race comment.

Added Harrison: “I said yesterday’s race was my hardest ever, but this one was just as hard. I had to be so focused the whole way around to keep Jayde behind because we are so close in the championship – every point matters. Yes, my car had to be very wide today: I didn’t really have the pace and he was pushing me very hard.”

Saturday victor Max Marshall (JTR) joined the battle in the closing laps, adding to Kruger’s workload. Marshall collected fifth, ahead of Abbott and Juan Rosso, who was lucky to make the race after a minor electrical fire in the paddock pre-race. “The guys did a great job to fix it and get me out,” said Juan. “But we have some problems with finding the right balance in the car.”

Chris Mealin (Falcon) completed the Scholarship podium and was eighth overall, ahead of Louise Richardson, who spun her Richardson Racing Mygale on the second lap and spent the rest of the race playing catch-up. Greg Holloway’s SWB Sinter completed the field after Michael O’Brien spun out from ninth place on the sixth lap, the newcomer opting to park his MBM Mygale and save its tyres for the final race rather than continue to last place.

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Round 18 reportAfter showing his rivals a clean pair of wheels in the first of today’s races at Snetterton, Ashley Sutton made the most of pole position advantage to romp to his second win of the day.

The Hertfordshire 20-year-old took off from the grid like a scalded cat in his MBM Motorsport EcoBoost Mygale, pursued by the JTR car of Jayde Kruger, and quickly stamped his authority on the race. Though Kruger gave valiant chase, stealing the fastest lap from Sutton on the final lap, the result was never really in doubt. Sutton crossed the line 2.8s ahead of his rival to claim another £1000 victory; Ashley has now bagged £5000 for his efforts this season, more winnings than any other driver.

“The most exciting thing about my race was seeing the chequered flag,” joked Sutton. “Like this morning, it was a case of getting a gap and maintaining the lap times and being consistent. We’ve come away with another win and that was the idea; it’s been a good weekend all round.”

Kruger was disappointed not to have been able to take the fight to Sutton, but relieved to have finished ahead of his title rival Harrison Scott and to have salvaged a podium finish from a difficult weekend which got off on the wrong foot with major electrical problems in Friday’s testing. “That’s my best result from this weekend, so I can’t complain. Not the worst race and not the best race; I’d like to have won but the car took a little time to come good. I made a mistake or two at the beginning, as well. It’s a decent end to a weekend we’d like to put behind us, I think. The team have worked really hard for me and it’s some repayment for them.”

Max Marshall stole third from Scott early on in the opening lap, and Harrison struggled to stay on terms thereafter. Marshall, the Saturday race victor for JTR, claimed the final podium placing with Scott having to settle for fourth and a loss of six points to Kruger.

The battle of the race was between impressive championship newcomer Michael O’Brien (MBM) and Falcon’s Ricky Collard. O’Brien got ahead of the more experienced Collard for fifth on lap two but didn’t put up too much of a fight when Ricky decided he was coming back past two laps later. Collard was then handed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, and then a drive-through penalty for repeating the misdemeanour, which handed a delighted O’Brien not only fifth overall but also the Scholarship class runner-up spot. Said Michael: “That was brilliant – I was catching the championship leader towards the end, and took fifth overall and second in the Scholarship. I couldn’t have asked for anything more, really. I was maybe a little soft in letting Collard past but I thought I’d stick behind him and see where it took me; in the end he got a penalty and it all worked out.”

Juan Rosso placed sixth, the sole surviving Radical entry after James Abbott pulled off after a lap with a misfire, ahead of a determined-looking Louise Richardson in the Richardson Racing Mygale (seventh her best finish so far) and Chris Mealin’s Falcon car. The penalised Collard was classified ninth and Greg Holloway was 10th after a late spin in the SWB Sinter.

Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship GB

Provisional results Snetterton 3 August 2014Round 17: 11 laps / 32.66 miles

1 Ashley SUTTON/GBR (Bishops Stortford) MBM Mygale 20m 25.694s / 95.92mph2 Ricky COLLARD/GBR (Eversley) Falcon Mygale +11.630s3 Harrison SCOTT/GBR (Althorne) Falcon Mygale +20.803s4 Jayde KRUGER/RSA JTR Mygale +20.945s5 Max MARSHALL/GBR (North Kilworth) JTR Mygale +21.516s6 James ABBOTT/GBR (Thurlby) Radical Mygale +21.898s7 Juan ROSSO/ARG Radical Mygale +22.863s8 Chris MEALIN/GBR (Braddan, IOM) Falcon Mygale +28.064s9 Louise RICHARDSON/GBR (Grantham) Richardson Mygale +1m 00.258s10 Greg HOLLOWAY/AUS SWB Sinter +1m 07.845sScholarship class 1 Sutton, 2 Collard, 3 Mealin, 4 Richardson.Fastest lap Sutton 1m 50.319s / 96.88mph RecRetirement Michael O’BRIEN/GBR (Silverstone) MBM Mygale, 5 laps

Round 18: 11 laps / 32.66 miles

1 SUTTON 20m 37.390s / 95.01mph2 KRUGER +2.878s3 MARSHALL +13.792s4 SCOTT +16.841s5 O’BRIEN Mygale +19.683s6 ROSSO +29.344s7 RICHARDSON Mygale +31.297s8 MEALIN +32.937s9 COLLARD +42.391s10 HOLLOWAY +1m 51.232sScholarship class 1 Sutton, 2 O’Brien, 3 Richardson, 4 Mealin, 5 CollardFastest lap Kruger 1m 51.375s / 95.96mphRetirement ABBOTT 1 lap

Full results

Provisional championship standings1 Scott 435 points; 2 Kruger 421; 3 Marshall 364; 4 Rosso 361; 5 Abbott 343; 6 Sutton 328; 7 Collard 239; 8 Mealin 202; 9 Sam Brabham 186; 10 Connor Mills 183 etc.Scholarship: 1 Sutton 354; 2 Collard 265; 3 Mealin 233; 4 Connor Mills 214; 5 Richardson 103 etc

Coming next

On TV 5 August 0055,ITV4, Croft highlightsKnockhill rounds 23/24 August


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