Just two weeks after Zandvoort I was back in action and back in the UK at the ultra fast Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire.

Despite qualifying problems in Zandvoort I had two great results from the two rounds held there in very different conditions and had managed to further extend my championship lead. Legendary Formula Ford commentator Brian Jones began referring to me as ?Mr Consistency? in his circuit commentary at Zandvoort and Brian used that same handle for me at Castle Combe last weekend.

Mr Consistency I may be but one consistent trait I?d like to break is having problems which only seem to manifest themselves when we begin qualifying. Once again at Castle Combe we had a niggling issue in qualifying, this time with fuel pick up, that we hadn?t experienced in practice and therefore saw me eight tenths behind pole man Scott Pye and down in 7th place on the starting grid. But despite this I was confident that if the team could cure the problem then I would be able to make good progress in the races.

The team obviously did resolve the problem because I made a flyer of a start in the warm sunshine late on Sunday morning and had moved up from 7th to 4th place by the end of lap one. In subsequent laps I was then able to capitalise on slight errors by Dan Cammish in 3rd and Josh Hill in 2nd place to overtake them both and move into 2nd place behind leader Scott Pye. By this time Pye had been able to build quite a considerable lead; almost two seconds in fact and I got my head down for a few laps to see if I could eat into it. I did in fact make some progress towards him; but not enough to put him under any real pressure and with the time rapidly running out and with me being in a secure 2nd place I decided to back off for the last couple of laps to help preserve my tyres for the 2nd race in the afternoon.

I didn?t make such a good start to race two but still had moved up to 5th by the end of lap one and was then at the rear of a five car train for the lead with Scott Pye, Josh Hill, Dan Cammish and Teo Elinas all ahead of me. We were all much closer this time and the two groups of team mates from Jamun and JTR were having quite a fierce battle and I therefore decided just to be patient for a few laps and see what developed rather than make any rash moves.

Unfortunately, just as we approached half distance in the race, Chrissy Palmer had a big off in his Juno burying it in the safety barrier and the race was red flagged soon afterwards with a break of about 30 minutes while they removed Chrissy and the car. Thankfully Chrissy was fine and walking about in the paddock afterwards all be it with his arm in a sling.

We were then re-gridded in the order that we were in when the race was stopped for a five minute dash to the chequered flag. With it being such a short race I knew that everyone would go for it. I made a very good start and was past the rapid Teo Elinas (who achieved the fastest lap of the weekend) by the 1st corner. I then overtook Cammish on the next lap and was quickly onto the gearbox of Hill who in turn was following his team mate Pye very closely. But Hill defended resolutely and with another podium in prospect I decided that a desperate manoeuvre wasn?t necessary. At the end just a second separated the three of us and I had achieved my 9th podium in 10 races justifying Mr Jones description of me.

Although I?d loved to have won another race this weekend, I think our qualifying position compromised us and therefore I have to be very happy with two more podiums and maintaining our advantage at the head of the championship. All things considered this has been a great season so far and I very much hope that we can find what we need to see it through to the end.

Bye for now

Scott

Rounds 7 & 8 of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain took place at the Zandvoort Masters event in Holland last weekend. The event is a fantastic 2 day festival of motor racing drawing very large crowds who populate the sand dunes on this great circuit right next to the sea.

The headline event is the F3 Masters which has many famous names amongst its past winners including Lewis Hamilton and David Coulthard. But there is a lot more besides this on the bill and the highlight for many would have been the demonstration laps in the Red Bull F1 car by Sebastian Vettel.

I arrived at the circuit in the middle of last week as we had two 40 minute test sessions on Thursday. I was very encouraged by my performance in these where I topped the time sheets and hoped for a similar performance in qualifying the following day. Therefore I was extremely disappointed to be only 8th fastest out of 34, four tenths off of the pole time set by Josh Hill and over a second slower than the time I had set in practice the previous day.

A look at my data showed a definite downturn in performance of my engine from the previous day and the decision was made to replace this with a spare from our supplier Scholar Engines and I really like to thank them for all their help with this.

It was sunny and extremely hot when we lined up on the grid for race one at around 11.30am on Saturday. We?ve been getting very good sized grids so far this season in the British Championship but with the added cars from the Benelux series contesting the concurrent Eurocup event it was a real sight to see over 30 cars waiting for the off.

Pole man Josh Hill stalled at the start and there were one or two other incidents which meant we very quickly had a pace car out. I had made a good start moving up from 8th to 6th. When the pace car went in I was quickly on the attack and passed one of the Benelux drivers and Emille Bernstorf in quick succession moving up to 4th and onto the gearbox of Dennis Lind. Dennis proved to be quite a tough customer putting his previous knowledge of the circuit to good use but I eventually out braked soon after a 2nd safety car period. I was now on the back of Cook in 2nd who was very close to Dan Cammish in the lead. They were battling quite hard and with the knowledge that I was quicker than the pair of them I did have one good opportunity to have a run at both of them; but this would be risky! Therefore knowing that championship rival Scott Pye was behind and I had a safe third place in the bag I decided to settle for what I had which meant I would further stretch my lead at the top of the championship.

Race two was the last event of the weekend and eventually got underway just after 6.30pm on Sunday. Conditions couldn?t have been more of a stark contrast to those from race one. A drop in temperature and really heavy rain meant that there was a lot of standing water on the circuit. The organizers decided to shorten the race by one lap and give us all an extra acclimatization lap as many of us hadn?t driven this circuit in the wet before.

Hill made a good start from pole but I made an even better one moving up from my grid 6 starting position to 2nd place within the first half a lap. Hill ahead of me was pushing really hard and I thought it was too much for the terrible conditions and I was right. On lap two he put two wheels onto the painted white line at the edge of the track and spun. I hung well back not knowing where he was going to end up and Dennis Lind behind was able to get a run on me which I didn?t bother trying to defend. Having driven here before Dennis was obviously well versed with the wet line and was giving it ?ten tenths? which I wasn?t willing to with what was at stake. It paid off for him but you can see from the TV coverage that he has a couple of scary moments. I was in a safe 2nd place with Pye and Cammish well behind on the road and although I did come under pressure at times from the two leading Benelux runners as their finishing positions wouldn?t affect British Championship points I was not worried about this.

Eventually the race director put out a red flag at the end of the penultimate lap as several cars were stranded on the circuit having come to grief in the worsening track conditions. With over 75% of the race completed a result was declared. I for one wasn?t too sorry to see the end of this one. I was coming up on back markers at quite rapidly and this is always risky especially in the wet when visibility is poor.

So I didn?t get a win but a 3rd and then a 2nd place finish means that I have now had seven podium places in eight rounds contested and more importantly I have stretched my lead at the top of the championship table through consistency. But I know that there is still a long way to go and the competition is very good. We?ve now had five different winners and I?d like to congratulate both Dan Cammish (JTR) and Dennis Lind (Fluid) who added their names to that list this weekend and have proved how capable they are and of course I am sure that Jamun Racing will be eager to make amends for their disappointing weekend.

I?d like to say a massive thank you to Cliff Dempsey Racing and Scholar Engines for all their hard work on my behalf this weekend. Also thanks of course to Raysport and all of my sponsors including ScanDoc, Essex Gas, Bell Fruit Games, Baines Property Leasing, Miller Oils and Laserfiche who make all of this possible.

Next stop Castle Combe!

Scott

Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh, Johan Cruyff, Jan Lammers? All Dutch masters of a bygone age! Now myself and 33 other drivers have our own chance to become masters in our own right at the Zandvoort Masters this weekend which incorporates the Formula Ford Eurocup and rounds 7 & 8 of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain.

Yes we are racing in the Formula Ford championship of Great Britain but the championship has always had a very International flavour, almost half of the grid this year is made up of overseas drivers, and having a continental round re-enforces that. I think it?s very good experience to have a round abroad and for me personally it makes up a little for the fact that I wasn?t able to pursue my successful karting career in Europe.

But in reality Zandvoort, which is in fact quite a bit nearer to my home than the venue we last raced at Knockhill, is just another new circuit that we have to go and learn and I am definitely relishing the challenge. Yes the Benelux drivers, who are scoring points for their own championship as well as the Eurocup, will initially have the upper hand in terms of circuit knowledge; I expect the top British championship drivers to be on the pace quite quickly. In fact Jamun Racing already demonstrated getting to grips with the circuit with both Scott Pye and Josh Hill running at the front when they took in a Dutch championship round at Zandvoort a couple of weekends ago.

On a personal note it the prevailing tough economic conditions have made it a real challenge for us to keep going in this championship but naturally as I am currently leading it I want to do my best to keep competing for as long as possible. I rely very heavily on the backing of my partners and that is why I am delighted to announce that we have a new name on board this weekend at Zandvoort; that of Bell Fruit Games. Bell Fruit Games are a long established leading brand in the leisure industry established in 1963 and supply some of the most popular gaming machines with titles such as the very popular ?Deal or No Deal? throughout the UK. I?m very happy to be associated with them this season.

So that?s us ready to go now. By the time you read this I?ll be preparing for qualifying at Zandvoort this Friday. I?ll be blogging on here again next week to let you know how our trip to the land of the Dutch Masters went.

Bye for now
Scott