Cole doubles points lead at Snetterton

British racing driver, James Cole took three strong points finishes at the fifth weekend of the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain at Snetterton, Norfolk. The Merseysider’s consistent performance, scoring two second places and a fourth in the weekend’s races, has doubled his lead in the drivers championship to 32 points from his nearest rival.

The tenth round of the Formula Ford Championship took place during a cloudy Saturday afternoon, with Cole starting second on the grid. A strong start to the race saw him pass pole sitter Josef Newgarden and take an early lead on the opening lap. However any chance of Cole pulling away and creating a comfortable gap was hampered when the safety car was deployed to recover a stricken car. Cole made a superb restart to maintain his lead as the safety car pulled in, defending his position from the chasing Newgarden. Two laps later, Cole was struggling to find the pace in his car and could no longer hold off the fast chasing American. After a closely fought battle to the flag Cole bought his Jamun Racing Mygale home in second place.

Starting from fourth on the grid for the second race of the weekend, Cole faced an uphill battle to take victory. Never deterred, he became the only driver to challenge for the lead of the race. After making another perfect start, Cole was up to second by lap two, before making a superb pass on Daniel Cammish to take second place. With leader Newgarden already starting to pull out a lead, Cole focused on chasing him down. On lap 11 he posted the fastest lap of the race in his bid to take victory, but once again crossed the line in second place to take another large point’s haul.

The final race of the weekend was one of the closest fought on track with over four different leaders of the race. Cole started from pole position and converted this into an early lead. A battle between Cole and arch-rival Newgarden in the early part of the race saw the duo trading places, thus allowing the third and fourth placed cars to close in on the battle. On lap 11 Cole was leading the race albeit by less than two tenths of a second. The top four of Cole, Newgarden, Chrissy Palmer and Jordi Cunill couldn’t have been closer with only three laps remaining. However in the dying laps an opportunistic manoeuvre saw Cole pushed out onto the grass and demoted to an eventual fourth place, but still securing the fastest lap of the race.

Cole commented about his weekend, “On paper the results are really good from the weekend. We had a pole, two fastest laps, two podiums and I finished by doubling my point’s lead in the championship, but I felt we should have come away with at least one victory over the weekend. We were battling for the lead in every race and the car felt good, it was just really close between the front runners during all of the races and there was never much between us. We compromised a little bit on set up between qualifying and the races, but overall I was happy with the car and our performance over the weekend.”

“I am thrilled to still be leading the championship now we are half way through the season, I know it’s about consistency and scoring points, so that’s we will be aiming for at Donington in a few weeks time.”

The next round of the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain takes place at the Donington Park Circuit in Leicestershire on the 18/19th July. Cole will once again be out on track looking to secure further points in his quest for the driver’s championship.