Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Daniel Cammish made a triumphant return to Formula Ford with a clean-sweep of the first three races of the British championship’s winged-era at Brands Hatch.
The 23-year-old was back in the category he finished third in in 2010, before coming sixth in Formula Renault UK in 2011 and missing most of 2012 after sustaining an injury in the Eurocup opener.
Cammish beat fellow returnee and 2011 dominator Scott Malvern to pole position for all three of the weekend’s races at the Kent circuit. He led Saturday’s race from lights-to-flag, though his JTR teammate Camren Kaminsky finished up just eight tenths behind on his debut.
George Blundell completed the podium on his first race in the new EcoBoost car after getting past Luke Williams. Finland’s Lassi Halminen, who has spent the last two years in the Formula BMW Talent Cup and Intersteps Championship, recovered from an early spin to claim fourth at the flag, relegating Jamun Racing pair Williams and Nico Maranzana on the penultimate lap to fifth and sixth respectively.
Malvern meanwhile was running third before a power delivery problem forced him into retirement.
The reigning Formula Renault BARC champion was able to give Cammish a harder time of things in race two on Sunday morning. He dropped to third behind teammate Williams at the start but found his way back past on lap seven. He then cut the gap to Cammish from 3.7 seconds to under half a second, but was made to settle for second place.
Williams dropped out with electrical gremlins, handing the final podium spot to 17-year-old Argentine Maranzana. Kaminsky and Halminen were left to fight over fourth, but finished up in the Paddock Hill gravel trap after contact on the penultimate lap. That gave fourth spot to Blundell and fifth to Autosport’s Ben Anderson, a regular in the club-level Formula Vee who was handed a late call-up by Jamun to replace Argentine Juan Angel Rosso, who was injured in a testing accident.
Cammish completed his perfect weekend with a third pole-to-flag win at the end of the day. His cause was helped by a first-lap tangle between teammates Malvern and Maranzana that sent the latter to back of the 12-car pack before recovering to eighth. Williams benefited to finish in second after starting back in sixth, with Kaminsky taking third.
Maranzana survived his incident with Malvern to come home in fourth ahead of Halminen, while Anderson got the better of Blundell to finish his weekend with sixth.
Cammish heads the early championship standings with 91 points, with Maranzana and Blundell tied for second on 64 and Kaminsky on 51. Fellow rookie Harrison Scott had a solid if unspectacular weekend with three top nine finishes to sit just three points behind Kaminsky, while Williams and Malvern are a further one and three points back respectively after their unfortunate weekends.
The next round takes place at Donington Park on 21 April.