Kruger cruises to victory in final Knockhill race

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

South African racer Jayde Kruger took his eighth victory of the Formula Ford GB season in race three at Knockhill.

The 26-year-old led from lights to flag and eventually finished eight seconds ahead of Max Marshall, who completed another JTR 1-2.

MBM Motorsport driver Ashley Sutton was set to start the race on pole position after dominating qualifying, but was relegated to the back of the grid, having had to change to a backup car after a huge shunt in race two.

As such, championship rivals Kruger and Harrison Scott lined up up the front row and both made solid starts to maintain their respective positions off the line.

While Kruger began to pull away out front, points leader Scott seemed to struggle for pace, allowing his Falcon teammate Ricky Collard to put pressure on him early on.

Behind them, Marshall fought his way up to fourth and soon joined the battling duo. The JTR man then got past Collard and, shortly thereafter, ended up clearing Scott for P2. He’d have to settle for second after that, with Kruger already a full seven seconds up the road by that point.

From that point on, it was a calm race for the top three, as Kruger, Marshall and Sutton brought their cars home in their respective positions.

Meanwhile, a charging Sutton and a defending Collard put on a lengthy battle for fourth overall and the lead in the Scholarship class. Sutton was all over Collard for most of the race despite taking some damage to his front wing early on – however, despite appearing to be faster, he could not get through on the Falcon racer.

The duo were soon reeled in by Radical’s Juan Rosso, who didn’t take long to pass Sutton and overtook Collard immediately afterwards, taking over in fourth.

Despite his front wing getting more and more unsettled with each lap, Sutton finally managed a late pass on Collard, taking fifth and the Scholarship class victory.

Louise Richardson ran fourth early on in the race and eventually took seventh, rounding out the class podium. James Abbott and Greg Holloway completed the order, while Chris Mealin retired with mechanical damage 14 laps into the race.

After the 21st race of the championship, Scott maintains the lead in the standings with 510 points, with Kruger just six points behind.

Race results