25 August, 2014: The 2014 Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain headed to Knockhill Racing Circuit in Fife last weekend. The challenging track produced a hat trick of podiums for 18 year old Falcon Motorsport driver and current Championship leader Harrison Scott, but with recurring pace issues, further 2014 race wins were still beyond his grasp.

The test sessions for rounds 19, 20 and 21 took place on Friday. Harrison, from Althorne in Essex, ran closest to pace setter Ashley Sutton around the 1.27-mile track, Scotland’s national motorsport centre situated six miles north of Dunfermline. Qualifying came on Saturday morning with Harrison qualifying in third with a time of 48.859 seconds, over three tenths faster than his 2013 qualifying time and only two tenths behind this year’s pole position for round 19 later in the day.

A heavy pre-race shower dampened the circuit sufficiently to bring out the wet Dunlop tyre option. JTR’s Jayde Kruger, who started second on the grid, was soon under pressure from the #6 Falcon Motorsport EcoBoost Mygale. A shrewd manoeuvre, which began at the hairpin at the end of lap six, allowed Harrison to close in on Kruger’s gearbox along pit straight and he swept past through Scotsman Corner to demote his title rival to third.

“I attacked him going into the hairpin and he had to go defensive,” said Harrison. “I got a good slipstream on him and then he went defensive again into turn one and ran wide; I switched back again got him around the outside. I was pushing after that but Ashley started to drive away as the track dried and my tyres started to go away.” Harrison’s second placed trophy extended his championship lead to 19 points at the end of day one.

The reverse grid second race on Sunday morning saw Harrison line up on the second row in P4. With continuing gremlins in his car with regard to pace, Harrison had to be satisfied with a third placed podium at the end of round 20. Unfortunately for his Championship title bid, he finished behind Kruger and Marshall, who finished six seconds ahead of him.

Following the series’ regular Drivers’ Autograph Session in the Formula Ford Paddock at lunchtime, the ITV4 live-televised weekend finale saw young Scott maintaining his podium finish consistency by collecting a further third placed trophy. His Championship advantage over Kruger, however, now sits at only six points with nine races to go. The closing stage of the 2014 season looks like it will go down to the wire as Formula Ford heads to Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northamptonshire next month.

Harrison Scott, #6 Falcon Motorsport:
“I got a reasonable start to the final race, but we still do not have the pace to challenge the front runners. It has been another up and down weekend; we did achieve second in wet conditions in race one and two third placed podiums on Sunday, but we certainly haven’t been where we’d like to be, or should be, all weekend. The good news is that we are still leading the Championship, but the margin is narrowing, so we have a lot to do before Rockingham in two weeks’ time.”

Provisional championship standings

1 Harrison Scott 510 points; 2 Kruger 504; 3 Marshall 438; 4 Rosso 421; 5 Abbott 391; 6 Sutton 380; 7 Ricky Collard 303 points; 8 Chris Mealin 214 points; 9= Sam Brabham & Holloway 186

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