Meridian Racing’s Ashley Sutton claimed two spectacular podiums in the opening two rounds of the 2014 Dunlop MSA Formula Ford of Great Britain at Kent’s famous 1.22mile Brands Hatch Indy circuit (29 March).
Sutton’s weekend did not get off to the best of starts when an early crash in qualifying hampered his running. A loose fire extinguisher pin jammed Sutton’s throttle potentiometer open and catapulted him full-speed into the gravel trap at clearways causing damage to both his car’s front end and his elbow. Despite this incident, the Bishops Stortford driver managed to put in a quick time early on to secure ninth spot on the grid for the opening round of the 2014 Formula Ford season.
With an elbow wrapped in bandage, Sutton produced a superb drive in round one to claim ninth position and the third and final spot on the podium in the Scholarship Class.
Looking to improve on round one’s performance, Sutton shot off the line and up to sixth in round two to put himself nose-to-tail with the front runners. As the race progressed, he and Radical Motorsport’s Juan Rosso battled intensely throughout the 26-lap race and as the chequered flag fell Sutton crossed the line eighth overall, but second in the Scholarship Class to claim yet another podium and a big handful of points.
“We’ve had some ups-and-downs so it’s been an emotional rollercoaster. We went out in the morning for qualifying and did our three installation laps and then went for our flying laps when we had problems going into Clearways. The throttle got stuck open, it was no-one’s fault it’s just one of those freak accidents.
“Race one, we didn’t have any set up on the car whatsoever. We started ninth, got up to eighth, went back to ninth and then on lap seven the gear linkage went. It was from the accident and was something we didn’t have time to fix so I was stuck in sixth gear for the rest of the race. But still, we managed to get on the podium twice in the Scholarship Class, which was fantastic!”
Sutton’s teammate 17-year old Connor Mills looked to have joined Sutton on the Scholarship podium on several occasions, but mechanical issues hampered his charge and brought a premature end to his podium hopes.
In round one a left driveshaft popped out after 11-laps and couldn’t be fixed from within the pitlane resulting in a retirement for the Upminster driver.
With the problem fixed and the car sitting on the grid for round two, Mills, like teammate Sutton, shot off the line and up through the order. He had put his round one issues behind him and was focused on making amends, but as he carved his way through the field and was within touching distance of a podium in the Scholarship Class, the right driveshaft popped out and again brought his race to an unexpected end.
Despite these mechanical issues, Mills showed fantastic pace over the two opening rounds and will be heading into tomorrow’s round three all guns blazing.
“My day has been very eventful. We didn’t have the best qualifying, but it was ok,” said Mills. “In the first race we moved up to tenth place, but then the problems started happening so it didn’t end too well. The second race I had to start last due to the DNFs, but I made up two positions off the start, which was brilliant. It was really tight up through the pack and then again we had a similar mechanical issue.
“For tomorrow I hope to finish the race, which will be a step forward, but a Scholarship podium will be the main aim as it has been staring me the in face all-day. Granted if the car runs well, a Scholarship podium is definitely on the cards.”
Meridian Racing Team Principal, Paul Abercrombie, said: “Mixed emotions. Both cars started pretty quick this morning, until Ashley (Sutton) had his shunt, but we recovered perfectly in race one and two to claim Scholarship podiums and silverware. It is something I said last week that we wanted to achieve at least one podium from this weekend so to claim two already is fantastic!
“We are chasing issues on Connor’s car and now we think we’ve found them, so hopefully tomorrow he can push on as well and get a Scholarship.”
Round three of the 2014 Dunlop MSA Formula Ford of Great Britain is scheduled to begin at 13.30 tomorrow (Sunday 30 March) and will be broadcast live in high definition on ITV4 and ITV4HD.
For more information on Meridian Racing, please visit the official www.meridianmotorsport.com website, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page or follow @MeridianMSport on Twitter and Instagram.