MCARTHUR TAKESHIS TALLY TO FOUR AT MALLORY
David Mcarthur in a Van Diemen LA10 dominated the Mallory Park Northern Formula Ford Championship doubleheader, claiming his third and fourth wins this season ahead of a spirited Adam Quartermaine.
It was only Quartermaine’s second race meeting this year due to his work, and he was right on the pace in his RF99. He had a plan to hang onto Mcarthur using his slipstream and then attack him late on.
For much of race one it looked like it was working. He indeed led briefly into Turn 1 before Mcarthur got back ahead at the same corner. Mcarthur, though, was able to break away by a vital few car lengths at a late safety car restart – the caution due to an incident involving Neil Hannah and Edwin Hunt at the Esses.
The second race was much more straightforward for Mcarthur as he quickly built a gap and beat Quartermaine, who was hobbled by a bent valve sustained at the end of race one, by 14 seconds.
“I’m really happy with that second race,” Mcarthur said. “The first one was a bit messy and it shouldn’t have been.
“I was really focused on getting into a rhythm in that second one. Short laps are all about banging out laps one after the other. We decided that 49.6s would be enough and that’s what we did, we didn’t try to do anything silly.
“I was pre-occupied with Adam behind me [in race one] and I didn’t concentrate enough, and gave myself a mental telling off for that one.”
Championship leader heading into the round, Rory Smith, did not attend. Alaric Gordon – a point behind Smith beforehand – took a fourth and third place despite a qualifying off where he sustained only a broken mirror on his Swift. In race two Gordon prevailed in a frenzied battle with Nigel Dolan’s Van Diemen.
Dan Lewis won the HRDC Academy/a-series Challenge race in a 1965 Austin Mini Cooper S. He led all the way and beat Julian Crossley’s ’59 Cooper by 3s. Crossley had to start at the back rather than his earned second place slot after not making the assembly area on time. He came through the pack to second by a third’s distance but couldn’t bridge the gap to poleman Lewis.
Crossley was also denied what would have been his first ever motorsport win in the HRDC Allstars race. It looked like he had prevailed in a classic handling versus power battle for the lead against Matthew Moore’s ’59 Austin Healey Jamaican. But Crossley then had a 10s penalty announced for rolling before the green light. Late on, his CV joint failed which first slowed him then caused him to stop. This let Moore win comfortably even after a lastlap trip across the grass.
Charlie Johnson took a pair of Superkarting UK Championship wins in his KTM 540 Anderson, leading both races lights-to-flag from pole. Aaron Sifleet in his Gas Gas Anderson finished second in both races despite a mysterious engine cut-out in race one, resolved by letting the clutch back out, which lost him nine seconds and briefly dropped him to third.
Nick Gwinnett in a Renault Clio won the opening Track Attack Nippon Challenge, Tricolore Trophy & Multi Marques race while his fellow Renault Clio pilot Russell Thomson claimed race two.