Jayde Kruger has taken the final race victory of the opening Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain meeting at Brands Hatch. The JTR Motorsport driver held second place from the line, chasing down Falcon Motorsport’s Harrison Scott for a pass on lap sixteen of 26. The South African then set about building a lead but was kept to a 1.147 second advantage.
The reigning Scholarship champion struggled later in the race dropping to fourth place after he lost out to Kruger. The beginning of the end was a safety car intervention for contact between JTR Motorsport’s Max Marshall and Scott’s own team mate, Ricky Collard.
Contact between the two leading drivers was investigated by the stewards, especially as it came under safety car. Kruger said that Scott braked suddenly through Clarke trying to back the #2 machine up a touch. Scott failed to make the jump on Kruger though and when the Falcon man went wide at Paddock Hill, Jayde pounced and took the lead. No penalty was assessed for the incident.
Radical Motorsport’s Juan Rosso took second place while Sam Brabham put a second JTR run Mygale on the podium.
The battle for fifth place was being fought hard between Marshall and Collard in the early part of the race but as the midway point arrived the duo clashed. A mis-judged pass at Druids by Collard put both drivers off. Collard was stuck in the middle of the circuit, Marshall managed to continue on to salvage seventh from the ashes.
Jamun Racing’s Jack Barlow and Radical’s James Abbott both nipped past the third JTR machine while Max sorted his problems. The ex-F4 racer took fifth place behind Scott with Abbott some two and a quarter seconds further back.
In the Scholarship class there was a different winner for the first time this season. With Collard running two for two but out of the third race of the day, it was all to play for in the slower class. Chris Mealin was the man to finally take the top spot with Connor Mills 0.164 seconds behind. That was a result in itself after a double dose of drive shaft failures put him out of rounds 1 and 2 and Meridian Motorsport could breathe a sigh of relief.
The team would celebrate again two seconds later when Ashley Sutton took third in the class ahead of Louise Richardson and guest driver Ben Constanduros. Once again the SWB Motorsport run Sinters failed to impress, with both James Webb and Greg Holloway ending the race a lap down and in thirteenth and fourteenth respectively.
The series moves on to Donington Park for its next dose of action on Easter weekend. Championship leader Kruger is excited by the prospect of heading to the wide open spaces and longer straights of the Midlands circuit. “I’m glad to have put Brands Indy behind us and now to be heading for longer, faster circuits which should suit us even better,” he commented.
