NEW CARS & DRIVERS FOR FORMULA FORD AT OULTON PARK
Dan Cammish is the man to beat so far this season in Formula Ford. Photo: www.jakobebrey.com
There will be a fresh look to the grid for this weekend’s Oulton Park rounds of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, with new drivers and a couple of new chassis expected for the fourth instalment of the fastest junior single-seater race series in the UK.
South African champion Jayde Kruger is one of the new drivers who will be in action, the 25-year-old joining the Jamun Racing team for his championship debut, while James Abbott and his family Radical Motorsport team will give their new car, an EcoBoost-powered Mygale, its first competitive outing.
Kruger, who comes to the UK with 10 seasons of single-seater experience in his home country and with three Formula Volkswagen titles and two Formula Ford titles to his name, enjoyed his first taste of EcoBoost power last week at Brands Hatch.
“It was good to get out in the car at last,” said Jayde. “It will take me time to get used to the turbo – it’s slightly different from what I’m used to driving. But I enjoyed my first time in the Mygale, despite the different feel. To be honest, testing opportunities have been quite limited – I would have liked a bit more, but there was no time.” Kruger’s first outing in a Formula Ford around the challenging Oulton circuit will come in Friday’s pre-race test sessions.
James Abbott was at Brands Hatch last Friday also, shaking down his new chassis following Radical’s decision to switch to one of the French-built Mygales for the remainder of the season. “The car was finished at about 2am on Friday,” said Radical boss Phil Abbott, “and we were straight off to Brands Hatch, where we managed to get some bugs out of it. It’s early days yet but we are very pleased with it. Hopefully we will manage to get in another performance test midweek before we go to Oulton.”
It’s hoped that despite Abbott’s switch that the Sinter marque will nonetheless be represented by two chassis at Oulton, one in the hands of SWB Motorsport’s Fred Martin-Dye and another for a yet-to-be-confirmed championship returnee, to be run under the Fluid Motorsport banner.
Ten different drivers have stood on the podium so far this Formula Ford season, but only one made has made it on to the top step: Dan Cammish, who has won all nine races for JTR Mygale from pole position to establish a useful early lead in the championship standings. The men emerging as his closest challengers are Jamun’s Juan Rosso, who has finished second four times in the last six outings, and Richardson Racing’s Andy Richardson, who twice made the podium last month at Thruxton.
The other podium men so far have been Harrison Scott, who leads the Scholarship class for Falcon Motorsport, just ahead of Jamun’s Nico Maranzana; Falcon man Lassi Halminen; Enigma Motorsport’s George Blundell; and Cammish’s JTR team-mate, Camren Kaminsky. JTR’s third man, Sam Brabham, is knocking on the door of a top-three slot.
Oulton’s Formula Ford thrills start on Friday with two test sessions ahead of Saturday’s official qualifying and Round 10 of the championship. Two further races are scheduled for Sunday, with live coverage on ITV4.
