Jayde Kruger swaps his JTR EcoBoost Formula Ford car for a Motorbase Ford Focus thanks to DunlopChampion enjoys his first taste of a front-wheel-drive competition car30 October, 2014 – Jayde Kruger claimed the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Champion’s prize yesterday (Wednesday) – a valuable test with the Motorbase Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship team, lapping Snetterton in the squad’s Airwaves-livered Ford Focus.
It was a real in-at-the-deep-end experience for 26-year-old Jayde, who had never previously driven a front-wheel-drive car around a circuit. Nonetheless he enjoyed it: “I was going from one Ford to another in a way, but obviously the BTCC Focus is completely different to my Formula Ford car… It was my first time in a front-wheel-drive car on a track, and obviously having a roof over my head felt a bit different, too. In terms of speed the Focus and my JTR EcoBoost Mygale are pretty similar; the biggest difference is the additional weight of the Focus, and its very different weight distribution. The brakes were really impressive.”
Motorbase Focus racer Mat Jackson was on hand to guide Kruger throughout the day: “Mat was extremely helpful to me, and the whole Motorbase team really supportive; you can never get enough advice when you are jumping into something for the first time. It was a really good experience, and I’d like to thank Motorbase and Dunlop for making it happen.”
Team manager Olly Collins said Jayde had been “brilliant… absolutely brilliant. We really liked his approach; he did exactly what we asked and listened to everything we told him and was really, really good. The Focus was as different as he could have got from his usual ride and he coped with it very well. He had a couple of short runs in the morning in the dry, unfortunately as he was about to go out for his dry ‘race’ run it started to rain and he had to do that in the wet. He was extremely comfortable with the conditions and set very consistent times, getting better and better with every lap. The whole team were really impressed with him.”
Jayde is set for another fresh experience this weekend (1/2 Nov) at Silverstone, where he will race a classic 1600cc Formula Ford car for the first time in the Walter Hayes Trophy. More than 100 entries have been received for the event, and Kruger will be up against some impressive talent including former British Formula Ford Champions Wayne Boyd and Scott Malvern.
Kruger will race the National College of Motorsport-prepared Van Diemen RF92 which JTR team boss Nicky Tandy campaigned in last year’s Walter Hayes. “I’ve never raced a Kent-engined Formula Ford before so it will be another learning experience for me,” said Jayde. “From a front-wheel drive BTCC car to a Kent Formula Ford in a couple of days – it’s been an exciting week.”
