6 September, 2009: Despite two race wins this weekend at Brands Hatch, Josef Newgarden failed to make any impression on James Cole's points lead in the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain. Cole took a third, a second and won the last of the Brands races to extend slightly his title race advantage to 61 points. With just four races remaining, James has a real opportunity to wrap up his campaign when the championship returns to Brands in a fortnight's time.
Race 1
A copybook performance from Newgarden and his JTR-prepared Mygale earned the American a well-deserved seventh win of the season at Brands Hatch on Saturday, and so frustrated his race-long pursuer, James Cole, that he nearly threw away his championship lead
Newgarden glided to the front from pole position, with Cole - who started alongside him in his Jamun Racing Mygale - slotting neatly into second, just ahead of the charging Rogier de Wit, whose Getem-run Mygale made a blinding getaway from fifth.
With Garry Findlay's Van Diemen exiting on the opening lap into the Druids hairpin gravel trap, and Daniel Erickson's Spectrum slipping back, the scene was set for a three-way duel for the podium steps. Newgarden, Cole and de Wit circulated in that order for 21 laps, each waiting for an error from one of their rivals… It came on the penultimate tour as a frustrated Cole closed on to Newgarden's tail through Paddock Hill Bend and tried to drive around his outside through Druids. It was an optimistic manoeuvre at the very least, and one which could easily have resulted in Cole joining Findlay in the gravel as Newgarden held resolutely to his line.
Luckily for James he averted a completed disaster and lost only a place, de Wit nipping past to slot into second to equal his best finish of the season.
Newgarden crossed the line two-tenths ahead of his Dutch rival. "It was an up and down race," said Josef. "I started well, but I had to conserve my tyres; keeping a consistent pace was important. I had two really fast guys behind me the whole time, so it wasn't easy."
"I completely messed that up," admitted Cole from the third step of the podium. "The racer in me decided to go for something which wasn't really on…"
Erickson recovered from his tardy opening lap to close down and overhaul Chrissy Palmer's Jamun Mygale for fourth on lap six, but the Australian battler could not narrow the gap to the leaders. Palmer finished fifth, a second behind Erickson.
Patrick McKenna set an excellent early pace to recover from a relatively poor ninth on the grid, passing Alex Jones and Liroy Stuart, and gained a place when Josh Hill retired with a holed radiator. But it all went wrong for the Irish driver two laps from the end when he thought he spotted the chequered flag, backed off prematurely, and lost sixth to Stuart.
Jones and Ben Barker nearly caught McKenna on the line but had to settle for eighth and ninth respectively, with Jordi Cunill rounding out the top 10.
Dan de Zille finished next up, the Jerseyman taking over the Scholarship Class lead just before mid-distance after early leaders Jake Green and Josh Benson struck trouble. De Zille's Minister International-run Mygale had the Spectrum of Scholarship points leader Daniel Cammish on its tail all the way to the flag, but Dan never erred and collected a richly deserved maiden class victory.
Race 2
As in Saturday's race it was the pole man who led the way in the first of Sunday afternoon's sprints, but this time it was Cole in the hot seat with Newgarden doing the chasing, and Erickson clinging on to third under pressure from Palmer and de Wit.
For 11 laps Josef harried James, the JTR car never further than a few inches from the gearbox of the Jamun Racing machine. Cole was more than equal to the pressure but, on lap 12, he left a chink of daylight into Surtees corner which Newgarden was quick to spot and exploit. Josef dived up the inside and muscled his way into a slender lead.
Cole was far from happy to find himself second again and attacked Newgarden lap after lap through Paddock Hill Bend and up the hill to Druids. Their cars touched at least once, but Newgarden held on take his second win of the weekend, aided by a series of 'no-passing' yellow flags at strategic points around the circuit caused by incidents involving several cars.
One of these crashes accounted for the Mygales of Hill, McKenna and Stuart, which clashed at Druids on lap 18, shortly after Hill had bagged the fastest lap of the race while attacking McKenna for eighth. Another collision ended the race for the cars of Cunill and Jones.
Newgarden's victory margin this time was less than a tenth of a second. "It's really difficult to pass here and it took me a while to get past Cole," said Newgarden. "When I did get past he touched me in the rear and I think it broke something in the suspension. After that it was really hard to hold on to it because I was just fighting the car all the way."
Erickson's grip on third was loosened by Findlay's Van Diemen on the 17th lap, Garry pulling away to secure the final podium spot with ease. Erickson had to settle for fifth, behind de Wit, after his strong early pace evaporated, and had Palmer right on his tail for sixth. Chrissy was in turn well ahead of seventh-placed Barker.
Eighth overall, and the fifth different victor this season in the Scholarship Class, was Kieran Vernon in the Wrensport Spirit. Fabio Gamberini led the class for the opening nine laps until a spin, handing over to Josh Benson, who was beaten back to class second, and ninth overall, by a determined Vernon. Championship debutant Felix Fisher gave the new Juno an encouraging 10th-place finish, ahead of Cammish and de Zille.
Race 3
His second-race fastest lap gave Hill his maiden pole position, and the World Champion's son made the most of the advantage to lead his Jamun team-mate Cole in the early laps. Findlay slotted into third ahead of de Wit and Erickson as Newgarden - his car apparently not handling too well after its earlier exertions - was pushed back to sixth.
A tap and a spin at Graham Hill Bend left Jones's Spectrum stranded on the opening lap, while Barker and McKenna tangled at Clearways and prompted the launch of a two-lap safety car period. Hill held his nerve at the restart but locked up into Paddock next time around and found himself bumped back to fourth as Cole, Findlay and de Wit took advantage of his error.
The race was further interrupted by the safety car when Vernon and de Zille spun into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel trap, leaving Cole facing a 10-lap sprint to the chequered flag while battling to keep his pursuers behind. The four-car lead tussle became a five-way fight as Newgarden caught up and tagged on, but the only passing manoeuvre that any of the protagonists was able to make stick came from Hill, who stole third back from de Wit at Druids five laps from the end.
Just 1.1s covered Cole, Findlay, Hill, de Wit and Newgarden at the line. It was James's sixth win of the year and the Liverpudlian was delighted: "That was a hard race. About half-way through it seemed I didn't have the pace to get away, and Gary got alongside me at one point. I'm not thinking about the championship at the moment, I am just interested in winning races. It would have been easy to let Gary go today and just take the points…"
"Nearly but not quite," lamented Findlay. "We are giving the Mygales a tough time at the moment and hopefully we can get some more wins before the end of the year."
Hill was delighted with third and his maiden Formula Ford podium result: "You have to take things step by step in Formula Ford, and this is a great result for me."
Stuart followed his JTR running mate Newgarden home for sixth, with Palmer seventh and Gamberini eighth for Fluid, Fabio holding off his Scholarship rival Benson to take an excellent class win. It was the Brazilian's second class victory of the season and one of the hardest-fought of the year.
Benson was right behind for ninth overall, ahead of Erickson, Fisher and Cammish, the Spectrum driver who has now amassed enough points to make Scholarship Class title honours a racing certainty come October's final rounds at Castle Combe.