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
