Ashley Sutton has continued his run of form to take a fourth win in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain at Knockhill. The MBM Motorsport driver battled tricky conditions to take the victory from pole position in a race he dominated, winning by 6.3 seconds. Of course by winning the race overall, he also claimed the Scholarship victory to extend his lead in this class.
Sutton’s initial getaway was aided by JTR Motorsport’s Jayde Kruger, who bottled up championship leader Harrison Scott from Falcon Motorsports allowing the Bishops Stortford based racer to grab a three second lead by the halfway mark. Scott finally made his attack stick on lap six when he closed through the hairpin to pass down the pit straight and complete the move.
By this time there was no chance of catching the runaway race leader.
Kruger’s day went from bad to worse soon after though as Ricky Collard in the second of three Falcon machines passed him under braking on lap fifteen. The move pushed the JTR man and former championship leader out of the podium spots and allowed Harrison Scott to extend his advantage at the top of the points table.
“I sat behind him and waited,” said Collard. “When I knew that my tyres were at their coolest and Jayde started to slide I focused on outbraking him into the hairpin. Then I was able to edge away – it’s a great result for Falcon.”
JTR did take fourth and fifth places though with Max Marshall ten seconds behind his team mate at the flag and well clear of the chasing Radical Motorsport machine of Juan Rosso. James Abbott’s Radical run car carried him to seventh with Louise Richardson in eighth. The Richardson Racing driver took third in the Scholarship behind Ricky Collard.
Chris Mealin made it three Falcons in the top ten ahead of Greg Holloway’s SWB Motorsport Sinter-Scholar. Holloway only completed 21 of the 23 laps after he spent time stuck in the gravel at Clarks but was able to continue.
Ashley Sutton commented, “It was a question of familiarising myself with the track – working out where the wet lines were, where the braking points were, what gear I needed to be in – then working on getting a gap and looking after the tyres as the track dried.”
