Ashely Sutton has taken his second consecutive victory in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain in the final race of the weekend for the ecoBoost cars at Snetterton. The race 2 winner also claimed top points in the scholarship class, cementing his lead in the class over Ricky Collard. The final race wasn’t as easy for the MBM Motorsport run driver however, with Jayde Kruger from JTR Motorsport less than three seconds down at the flag.
When the lights went out Sutton was away from pole like the robbers dog, gapping the JTR machine of erstwhile championship leader Kruger and settling in for the race. With little reply to the pace of Sutton Kruger concentrated instead on maximising his advantage over title leader Harrison Scott of Falcon Motorsport. The South African’s team mate Max Marshall helped there by claiming the final podium position by over ten seconds.
The battle at the front of the field was a sideshow though with the impressive fight happening for fifth place. Championship debutant Michael O’Brien pushed the man who finished second in race two almost from the word go. The second MBM machine harried and harassed Ricky Collard’s Falcon Motorsport run Mygale until the more experienced driver slipped up on lap two. Collard countered on lap four but was found by the stewards to have exceeded the track limits.
After taking fifth on the road the son of touring car ace Rob Collard was handed a five second penalty which put him in ninth overall. That promoted Radical Motorsport’s Juan Rosso to sixth place and Louise Richardson of Richardson Racing to seventh for the final Scholarship top three position.
Chris Mealin took eighth ahead of his Falcon team mate with Greg Holloway in tenth for SWB Motorsport. Yet again the Sinter-Scholar showed its lack of pace by finishing in the final classified spot while James Abbott retired his Radical run Mygale with a misfire on his Mountune power plant.
A thrilled Sutton said, “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.”
The championship now heads to Knockhill for rounds 19, 20 and 21 with Harrison Scott holding a tenuous grasp on the top spot. Only six points split the Falcon driver from his JTR rival Jayde Kruger. Max Marshall sits 71 points behind the title leader with twelve races left to go. It isn’t over for the youngster but you wouldn’t bet on him.
It is a similar story in the Scholarship where Sutton now holds an 89 point advantage over Ricky Collard. Chris Mealin sits a further 37 points behind so statistically still has a chance but the odds are against him.