Jayde Kruger has taken the race win in an eventful final race for the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain at Donington Park.
The South African JTR Motorsport driver kept it together as rivals fell to the wayside in a brutal contest in thankfully dry weather. First to take the lead was Sam Brabham who rocketed off the line and secured the top spot long before the pack reached Redgate corner.
Brabham came unstuck less than half a lap later however when he dropped a rear wheel onto the grass at Old Hairpin. He saved the slide into the gravel trap only to miss the switch back which sent him crashing into the barrier at Schwanz Curve. The youngster was visibly distraught, though he didn’t remove his helmet until long after the end of the race, as he contemplated the wreckage of his first proper chance at a race victory.
Ovie Iroro also dropped out on the first lap in the Richardson Racing machine, a retirement hardly noticed given the championship drama unfolding round the back of the circuit.
Six laps later the next major event took shape as Falcon Motosport’s Ricky Collard battled with his team mate Harrison Scott for the lead of the race into Redgate. Collard dived to the inside after trying the long way round. Either Scott didn’t see him or just wasn’t in the mood to be bullied by his Scholarship class sister car but he closed the door hard, pitching Collard into the air. The #11 machine landed on its wheels but was damaged and unable to continue, stricken in the gravel at the first corner. Scott would retire a lap later with driveline damage from the crash.
After that you would have thought the race would have calmed but the final classification belies the action on track. Kruger inherited the lead, though his pace may have put him in contention later anyway while his JTR team mate Max Marshall kept the gap around two seconds by the close of play. Juan Rosso for Radical Motorsport took the final podium spot another two seconds further back.
Scholarship went to Connor Mills again after the second retirement of the weekend for Collard who had dominated the class at Brands Hatch. The #82 driver’s Meridian Motorsport team mate Bobby Thompson took second in the class at the debut meeting while Falcon’s day was salvaged by a third place for their second Scholarship runner, Chris Mealin.
Seventh went to James Webb who again out-performed his SWB Motorsport team mate Greg Holloway. The former Australian Formula Ford champion yet again failed to move up a place and was buffered from Webb by Radcial’s James Abbott and the leading runners who lapped him before the race ended.
The next three rounds of the championship come in two weeks, when the TOCA package heads to Thruxton for the May Day bank holiday weekend.
