The 2013 Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain came in two parts: With Dan Cammish, and post-Dan Cammish.
The first 24 races of the season were all about Mr Cammish. The JTR man was rarely troubled over the first eight weekends of the year as he used his previous single-seater experience to dominant effect.
24 wins in 24 races indicate just how out of touch Cammish was for his rivals, with that accentuated by the fact he was only headed in three races, and only on one occasion did a rival lead more than three laps before the 24 year old got ahead.
Cammish And JTR Had A Lot To Celebrate This Season – Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Alongside the 24 wins, Cammish also carded 22 pole positions and 19 fastest laps, leading an incredible 396 racing laps out of 415. That meant he comfortably wrapped up the title with two weekends to spare, allowing him to depart and focus on a targeted BTCC move for 2014.
The final six races therefore took the competitive, action-packed racing that had occurred in the champion’s rear-view mirrors, and thrust it into the limelight, with coveted race wins now clearly up for grabs.
One of the drivers to grab a race win on the penultimate weekend at Silverstone was Harrison Scott. The Falcon Motorsport ace was Cammish’s most consistent challenger over the season, picking up thirteen podium finishes during the champion’s streak, leading him twice at Oulton Park and Croft.
The Silverstone win, coupled with a double podium on the final weekend, meant the 17 year old comfortably ended the year as the championship runner-up, wrapping up the Scholarship Class title and the Mazda Road To Indy Driver of the Year award in the process.
While Scott was Cammish’s closest rival over the campaign, it was Nico Maranzana who went closest to breaking the champion’s winning streak. The Argentinian led until lap fourteen in Round 20 at Knockhill, but wasn’t able to fend him off and take the win.
A treble podium that weekend, making it nine for the season, had moved the Jamun Racing ace up to second in the championship, but that turned out to be his last outing of the campaign.
Fortunately for the Jamun outfit, Maranzana left behind the in-form Juan Rosso and Jayde Kruger to lead the team through the final meetings.
Kruger Starred During His First UK Campaign – Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
South African star Kruger, who had joined the series on weekend four at Oulton Park, was one of the victor’s at Silverstone, capping off a hugely impressive maiden UK campaign that saw him finish every race bar one in the top six, with a total of eleven podium finishes.
Rosso meanwhile was the star of the show on the finale weekend at Brands Hatch, picking up a sensational treble victory. Those wins, coupled with eight other podium finishes over the season, secured the Argentinian third in the final standings after a great debut season.
Over at JTR alongside Cammish, Sam Brabham was ever-improving over the course of his maiden season. A regular podium finisher, the third-generation racer was unlucky not to cap it off with a win at Silverstone, having led all three races at one stage.
Snatching a win instead was his team-mate Camren Kaminsky, the American’s success being a bit of a surprise after a relatively tough campaign. A bright, double-podium start at Brands Hatch didn’t correlate into regular top-three finishes, with just one more prior to his win leaving him eighth in the standings.
Another driver having a tough campaign was Andrew Richardson. The former Ginetta racer showed flashes of brilliance in his family-run Mygale, a double podium at Thruxton being the highlight, but mechanical gremlins cost him finishes far too often. Fortunately the 22 year old returned to the podium in the final race to end the season on a high.
Abbott’s Mygale Switch Brought An Upturn In Fortunes – Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
The championship proved to be very Mygale-heavy over the season, with just a pair of Sinter’s taking them on. James Abbott ran one early on, but it wasn’t until a mid-season switch to a Mygale that the Radical-run racer moved up into podium contention, two on the final weekend giving him a top five championship finish.
The second Sinter, ran by SWB Motorsport, had a really hard season. After original driver Fred Martin-Dye left following a top six finish at Thruxton, Rob Shield, Zaid Ashkanani and Jack Dex had goes in the car, but couldn’t break back into the top six.
The SWB car wasn’t the only one to change occupant over the course of the season, with a number of drivers having short stints in the series. 2011 champion Scott Malvern took a podium finish on a one-off return on the opening weekend, while fellow series returnees Luke Williams and Lassi Halminen also grabbed podium finishes early on before leaving the championship.
The championship’s main downfall this season has been grid numbers, with a return to the BTCC package and the introduction of ‘slicks and wings’ on the EcoBoost cars not leading to huge grids as hoped.
The grids reached a low of nine at Oulton Park and Knockhill in mid-season, but some late additions has indicated a more positive 2014 may lie ahead in that respect.
While the grids weren’t massive, they were full of hungry, talented young racers looking to make an impact in the UK racing scene, leading to some great, wheel-to-wheel racing that ensured that while the cars may have wings now, Formula Ford GB is still as action-packed as ever.
TCF’s Top Three Formula Ford GB Drivers Of 2013:
3. Jayde Kruger – The South African came over to the UK with a big reputation after winning multiple single-seater titles in his homeland. Adapting to the new car superbly, Kruger was on the podium from the off and was unlucky not to push Cammish harder.
2. Harrison Scott – What a maiden car-racing season Harrison has had. The first driver to lead Cammish in a race, Scott was comfortably the champion’s most consistent rival over the season, ending the year with an impressive podium tally, and an equally impressive awards collection.
1. Dan Cammish – What can be said about this man’s title-winning campaign that hasn’t already been said? The statistics say it all, the champion showed mesmerising pace from race 1 to race 24, setting records that may never be broken.
Final 2013 Formula Ford GB Standings:
- Dan Cammish – 739pts
- Harrison Scott – 635pts
- Juan Rosso – 589pts
- Sam Brabham – 477pts
- James Abbott – 476pts
- Jayde Kruger – 471pts
- Nico Maranzana – 448pts
- Camren Kaminsky – 421pts
- Andrew Richardson – 37pts
- George Blundell – 136pts
- Lassi Halminen 128pts
- Luke Williams – 122pts
