Formula Ford Festival - Festival Report

 

10 December 2011

Formula Ford Festival Report - 2011

MALVERN WINS FESTIVAL & PAYS TRIBUTE TO DAN WHELDON

Scott Malvern capped a superbly successful season with victory at Brands Hatch in the BRSCC’s Formula Ford Festival. The 22-year-old from Essex qualified on pole and won his heat, quarter final and semi-final races before beating Dutch driver Steijn Schothorst to the chequered flag by 0.4s in the Duratec final.

It was a brilliant swansong performance by Malvern for the Jamun Racing team, with whom he had already won the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Champion of Great Britain in dominant fashion.

“It couldn’t have gone any better for me,” said Scott. “This was the one I wanted to win all year. The plan was to try to run away and hide and I nearly achieved that. I struggled a bit for pace early on in the final but was just able to keep Steijn behind. It’s a great end to my Formula Ford season.”

But Malvern’s joy was dampened by the news from the USA of the death in an IndyCar crash of 33-year-old Dan Wheldon. Like Malvern, Wheldon’s junior career was nurtured in Formula Ford; Wheldon was Formula Ford Festival runner-up in 1998, finishing behind the driver who would go on to become World Champion in 2009, Jenson Button.

Ballymena’s Ivor McCullough took a well-deserved win in the Kent Final, the seasoned Festival campaigner finishing ahead of Scotsman Kenneth Thirlwall. Team USA Scholarship driver Neil Alberico was third across the line. In the opening laps, the highly rated Californian had recovered from a clash at Druids with Canadian pole-sitter Xavier Coupal that ended the latter’s race.

Neil Tofts was back atop of the Zetec podium to record his third victory in the Final. Tofts cruised to victory in his Mygale SJ04 but the main story of the race was Festival returnee Rick Morris at the age of 65 driving from the back of the grid after a race one shunt to claim second in his Van Diemen RF01. At the other end of the age scale, 17-year-old Ashley Dibden showed great maturity in his Ray97 to take third spot on the podium.

The World Cup was won by Australia with the team comprising of Nick McBride, Geoff Uhrhane and Spike Goddard.

Results of the meeting can be found at CLICK HERE

The 2012 Festival will take place on the weekend of the 27th/28th October.