Ashley Sutton quickest in Scotland by a quarter of a second
Title rivals Harrison Scott and Jayde Kruger hot on Sutton’s heels ahead of the weekend’s triple-header
Ashley Sutton underlined his strong recent run of form in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain by posting the quickest time in both of today’s pre-race test sessions at Knockhill. Sutton’s MBM Motorsport Mygale was a tenth of a second ahead in the morning test and ended the day 0.24s up on the best of the rest.
Bishops Stortford-based Ashley’s best lap time was 48.669s, nearly four-tenths of a second better than last year’s pole position time for the 1.27-mile Scottish track. He had never driven a lap of the circuit before today and was delighted by it and his performance in the MBM Mygale: “I love it here – you really have to be on the edge. Some tracks you can chill out and get into a rhythm, but here you are in full attack mode the whole time. It’s really good. I had a little moment in the second session: it was raining at the start and I went off at Turn 1 and pulled the floor out of the bottom of the car, but they guys did what needed to be done and got me out again very quickly.”
Championship leader Harrison Scott (Althorne) ran Sutton closest in his Falcon Motorsport Mygale. Said Harrison: “I’m getting back into the swing of the circuit after a year away and found some time on new tyres in the second session. We’ve still got a bit to learn, though.”
Scott’s chief rival for the Formula Ford crown, JTR’s South African driver Jayde Kruger was third fastest, 0.287s down on Sutton’s pace. “Two-tenths around here is a big gap,” said Jayde. “We have some time to find to be honest… But we all ran new tyres at different times so it’s hard to know where we should be. We’ll have to take tomorrow as it comes and see what happens.”
Radical Motorsport men Juan Rosso and James Abbott slotted into fourth and fifth positions on the timesheet, Argentinian Juan pleased with his car’s progress since Snetterton. “We made a long test after the races at Snetterton and managed to improve the understeer,” said Rosso. “The car has much better drive now and I am happy.”
Max Marshall, who won his first Formula Ford race at Snetterton, was sixth for JTR ahead of Ricky Collard who, like his Falcon team-mate Chris Mealin, damaged his Mygale’s suspension on Knockhill’s unforgiving kerbing in session one. Richardson Racing’s Louise Richardson was eighth overall, and third-best Scholarship driver behind Sutton and Collard. Mealin was ninth fastest overall and SWB Sinter driver Greg Holloway 10th.
Qualifying is scheduled for 1105 tomorrow, with the first race of the weekend following at 1705. Sunday’s Knockhill event, to be televised live on ITV4, will feature two Formula Ford races.
