I had my first ever car race this weekend at Mondello Park in Ireland.

Ireland has been a hot bed of Formula Ford 1600 talent for many years now and there are some very good drivers there. So when my Team Manager Cliff Dempsey suggested having my first ever car race there I thought well nothing like jumping in at the deep end!

I had never ever seen Mondello Park before Saturday practice but it didn?t take too long to get onto the pace although I knew it would be tough as several other drivers like Neville Smith, Noel Dunne and Morgan Dempsey as well as my own team mates Stephen Daly and Noel Carey were all pretty quick!

So I was delighted to qualify my GRS 08 Ray car in third place in Sunday morning qualifying just behind Smith on pole and Dunne on grid 2.

I can?t pretend that I wasn?t nervous about having to do my first ever standing start but I listened to what Cliff told me to do and it worked and I made a good start maintaining third behind leader Smith and 2nd placed Dunne.

Then on lap 2 there was some confusion as a recovery vehicle came onto the circuit to aid the stricken car of my team mate Noel Carey. Everyone slowed down expecting a safety car but there wasn?t one and with the green flag waving Smith to his credit nailed it and got a break. I knew that I would have to pass Dunne not to lose him so I put a move on him in the final corner before the start finish straight and Noel to his credit was hard but fair and gave me room. He tried to cut back on me up the straight and we were side by side for a while with me on the outside but I just kept my foot in and braked as late as I possibly dared and held the corner. It felt fantastic to be racing and against drivers that I have a lot of respect for as well!

I then set after Smith who was about 10 car lengths clear by now but I got my head and put in some really fast laps which earned me the fastest lap of the race. By lap 12 I was closing really rapidly on the leader Neville Smith and knew that I had at least 6 or 7 laps to put a move on him but then as I came up the start finish straight I suddenly lost power and coasted to a halt. I felt sick!!

Afterwards we traced the problem to a clutch failure. If only it could have lasted a few more laps! But once I?d got over the disapointment of not finishing, what I had actually achieved here began to sink in. I?d come and “put it up” to the best drivers in Ireland in their own backyard and on a circuit I?d never been to before and not only almost beat them but took fastest race lap into the bargain only 2 tenths shy of the lap record! Not too shabby at all for my first race and I know that if we can carry this momentum into the UK National Championship then we are going to have one hell of a season! Not that I think for a moment that it will be easy!!

I?d really like to thank Cliff Dempsey for making all of this possible and Dave my excellent mechanic for the weekend; and of course my sponsors Lamberhurst Corporation, ScanDoc and Baines of Ripon Industrial Unit leasing.

I?d also like to thank the other drivers and organsers at Mondello Park for making us feel extremely welcome. I would very much urge other UK drivers to pay a visit. I very much hope to be returning soon as I have unfinished business; just a little matter of a race victory and a new lap record should put things straight! Something tells me though that they?ll be ready for me next time!!

Thanks for your interest

Scott

Hi Everyone,

I?m Scott Malvern and welcome to my opening blog. I?ve been racing since 1998, when I kicked off my motorsport career in a cadet kart at Buckmore Park aged 9. Actually that?s not strictly true because prior to that I?d learnt how to drive a kart at the Brentwood Park circuit near my home in Essex, UK and had a lot of friends there that went onto race at both National and International level in Karting.

I won a lot of championships and a lot of trophies including the prestigious Renault Champion of Champions in Super Libre which was actually my debut in the class but unfortunately we never had the budget available to race in the European and World championships which was my dream. I?d love to have gone up against the likes of Fore, Catt and Cesetti; all drivers that I admired a great deal. In fact my dream was partly realised when I raced against both Catt and Cesetti at the British Kartmasters Grand Prix where I finished 8th but it wasn?t quite the same as racing them on a European track.

In 2008, with no money to go racing, I accepted an offer from Jamun Racing Services Formula Ford Team to be a race mechanic to Australian Rising Star Tim Blanchard. I had worked as a kart mechanic from the age of 12 to help pay for my own racing so going to work for a car team was not such a strange thing to do. I also knew that I would learn a lot at Jamun as they were the benchmark in Formula Ford having been champions for four consecutive years. I very much enjoyed working with Tim and we didn?t do too badly as ?two new boys? finishing runner up in the British championship to another Jamun driver Wayne Boyd.

At the end of 2008 I had the chance to test the championship winning Jamun Mygale car myself. I also tested Van Diemen cars for the Fluid Motorsport team and for Speedsport and also had an interesting run in the new Juno chassis. I enjoyed this very much and all of the tests went very well; and I proved that I had what it took to drive a car quickly. But not just that my mechanical knowledge gained from my season working with Jamun gave me an insight into car set up that many other young drivers just do not have.

Unfortunately with the UK economy the way that it currently is we?ve been unable to raise a budget to compete in the British Duratec Formula Ford championship. It seemed I was destined to spend another frustrating year on the sidelines working as a mechanic, but then Cliff Dempsey came to my rescue. He offered me a test in the Kent engined Formula Ford 1600 car that he had provided for Josef Newgarden to win the 2008 Formula Ford Festival. The test, just before Christmas 2008 at Kirkistown in Northern Ireland went extremely well and from then on Cliff and I have been talking to try to put a deal together to race in the UK National Formula Ford championship this year. This truly is a National series as it races in 4 countries across the United Kingdom. It is also extremely competitive as it attracts not just up and coming drivers like me, keen to get a foot hold on the racing ladder, but seasoned very experienced drivers that return to FF1600 year in year out. It?s going to be a great place to learn my trade and I cannot wait to get started!

I?d like to say a big thank you to Cliff Dempsey for making this possible and to my terrific sponsors, Lamberhurst Corporation, H W Baines Leasing and ScanDoc. I?d also like to say thank you Andreas and his team for making this fantastic website available to us all. What a great place for anyone with any interest in motorsport to check out what any driver has achieved and what they are currently doing.

In between racing myself in Formula Ford I shall still be very much involved with karting working for my old team Project One Racing and helping young Minimax hopeful Rob Holland. And you never know; given half a chance I?ll be back out in a kart myself at some point but strictly for fun only now.

So please keep checking back on my news page and blog page. I very much look forward to keeping all of you updated on my season, however it goes! I?d also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in motorsport a fun packed year!

Scott Malvern