Louise Richardson finished her Dunlop MSA Formula Ford season on a high last weekend with two further Scholarship class finishes.
Qualifying was on a very slippery wet track but Louise took her Mygale to an excellent seventh overall on the grid.
Things were a bit drier in the race but there was still a lot of action and incident with the early leader, Ashley Sutton driving into the tyre barriers at Paddock Hill bend. This brought out the safety car for a while, giving Louise less time to race but she still managed fifth overall and second in the Scholarship class.
Race two on Sunday was on a drying track so Louise decided to gambled on running slick tyres. Sadly a brake issue caused her to run wide on the opening lap. With a big gap to the rest of the field, Louise charged for the rest of the race gaining on the field and salvaging a tenth place overall. She was the fourth fastest car in the race showing that without the first lap incident she had been on for another Scholarship class podium at least.
In the final race of the weekend on a dry track, Louise battled with the new 2014 champion Jayde Kruger fighting for seventh overall. Things were close but Louise came out on top taking seventh overall and third in the Scholarship class.
Louise has only been able to enter seven of the ten race weekend’s this season due to funding issues. (She had similar problems last season in the Ginetta. Despite this, she reached the top ten in the championship, finishing the year in ninth overall. She was also fourth in the Scholarship class championship in both classes she was ahead of drivers who have done the whole season.
Louise is pleased with how both the weekend and the season have gone;
“I’d say it was a bit of a mixed way to finish the season but overall I’m happy with the way the weekend went,” she said. “Two more Scholarship Class podiums was a nice way to end the year, even though I’ll admit that I overdrove the car a bit in race three. However, the fact that I finished the race ahead of Jayde is a sign of how far I’ve come, as I wasn’t close to his pace when we started at Brands Hatch back in April.
“This season has been a huge learning curve for me and I think I have learned more this year than in any other season I’ve done so far. It was a big step to move into single-seaters after racing in Ginettas for so long, but I’d like to think I‘ve enhanced my reputation and shown what I can do.
“I was learning every time I went out in the car, and when you consider I didn’t have any testing before the season started, I’m proud of the progress I’ve made.” By Marc Waller
