Falcon Motorsport’s driver Harrison Scott led the times in the TOCA support series test at Thruxton today.
Competition for the top time was fierce with Max Marshall and Sam Brabham keeping the championship’s second place driver honest throughout in their JTR Motorsport run Mygales. Brabham was just four thousandths of a second slower than the Falcon machine at the end of the day with his team mate an extra tenth off the pace.
The headline of the day however comes from Jaman Racing and Jack Barlow. The former BRDC Formula 4 driver was taken to hospital following an off at Goodwood, one of the fastest corners on the fastest circuit that the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britian visits in the year. Barlow was relatively unharmed in the accident, which saw him lose control, dig into the soft grass run-off and flip his Mygale-EcoBoost. He even extracted himself from the car but was taken to the hospital for precautionary checks.
The tests showed no “immediate cause for concern”.
The afternoon session was halted while the incident was dealt with but then ran uninterrupted for the remainder of its length. The accident did however prevent a re-occurrence of the contest for lap times which was the morning running. Scott’s 1:11.795 stood as the fastest time of the day, which is half a second faster than the pole time set last year by Dan Cammish on his way to championship victory.
Radical Motorsports took fourth and fifth with Juan Rosso and James Abbott respectively. JTR’s championship leader Jayde Kruger was unable to better sixth in the test, ahead of Ricky Collard who took seventh and the scholarship class top spot. Chris Mealin and Connor Mills took eighth and ninth ahead of Jack Barlow who stood in the top ten despite his early afternoon shunt.
Richardson Racing used the test to debut Ovie Iroro. The Nigerian novice ran well for a debutant, placing fourteenth of fourteen but coming to within 0.253 of SWB Motorsport’s James Webb.
Scott was glad that he found time to put in a strong lap, despite working hard during the sessions. He said, “I went on to new tyres straight away but had a few things to do first, like bedding in some brakes, and was then able to do a time which I was really happy with. There’s still more time to find, but overall I’m pleased and it’s a good confidence boost for next week at Donington Park.”
All of the support series to the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship were in action at the test, with a second in-season test planned for Donington Park on Thursday 17th April.