Louise Richardson had another positive weekend in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship, this time at Silverstone
.She’d only recently taken her first class victory at Rockingham in the previous rounds as well as her best finish yet in single seaters.
She was was joined in the Richardson Racing team this weekend by Nigerian racer Ovie Iroro, who rwas returning to the championship for the first time since the third meeting of the year at Thruxton.
Qualifying went well and she put her Mygale into seventh on the grid. Things looked set for a great result when a very rare mistake saw her make a bad start and she dropped down the order.
This left her in eighth overall by the end and fourth in the Scholarship class. She was disappointed as she’d hope to move up the field rather than slip down.
In race two on Sunday she made a better, if still slow, start and raced with the pack for most of the race. Later on she began to suffer from tyre wear which dropped her away from the front running pack and she ended up seventh overall.
Race three then proved to be her best of the weekend, with Louise running right at the front to take sixth overall and a third in the Scholarship class.
Despite only racing in part of the season, Louise is now ninth in the overall championship and an impressive fourth in the Scholarship standings. She spoke about her Silverstone weekend;
“It’s been a bit of a mixed weekend,” she said. “Qualifying went well but then in race one, I started to move before the lights went out and had to jump on the brakes. I could have been given a penalty but they must have decided that my start was then so bad that they didn’t need to! It turned out to be one of those races that happens sometimes, and I just had to forget it before race two.
“I was a bit tentative at the start because of what had happened earlier but got involved in a good battle in the pack. It all kicked off behind me and a few drivers went off, which gave me some breathing space and that was good because I started to suffer with the tyres towards the end.
“It was nice to get a Scholarship podium to finish the weekend, although I feel like I could have gone better myself. We’d made some changes to the car, which improved it although it still wasn’t perfect. Hopefully when we get to Brands Hatch, we’ll be able to hit the ground running and end the year on a high. I can’t really complain at a top six finish; I’m just left wanting more after the way Rockingham went!”
Louise’s new team mate Ovie, had a dnf in race one but bounced back to take a ninth and an eleventh in the weekend’s other two races.
Brands Hatch is a circuit that Louise has often been strong on so there is a great chance of a great end of the season for her. by Marc Waller
