Gough Racing Victorious In Opening Round - 02/04/07

Gough Racing started their 2007 Club Formula Ford Championship campaign in the best possible way at Oulton Park on Saturday (March 31st) with Stuart Gough taking a convincing victory.

Turning a wheel for the first time of the year, Gough Racing ended the Friday test day quickest by just one tenth of a second, with Stuart fresh from a Formula 3 outing at Silverstone highly satisfied. “It was an enjoyable day and great to be back out in Formula Ford. We were quickest throughout and by the end of the day the times were very close. It looks like it is going to be a highly competitive championship.” Indeed six drivers were separated by just half a second ensuring qualifying was set to be a close battle.

From his first flying lap Stuart was on pole position, initially with a 1.04.568 second lap before setting the benchmark with a 1.04.280. Having set a further three laps quick enough for pole, Stuart further cemented his position by setting his best time on the final lap of the session with a 1.04.200. Gary Jones and James Cole were second and third for Medina Sport some two tenths of a second adrift of Stuart, with Mark Chadwick fourth for Northstar Motorsport and Chris Chisnall rounding out the top five.

Making a perfect start, Stuart led the field at the end of the opening lap with Gary Jones in Second. A small mistake into Fosters allowed Jones to get back into the slipstream of Stuart on the fourth lap, with Jones then making an audacious passing move for the lead at the start of the fifth lap. Quickly retaliating, Stuart dove back past into Lodge at the end of the sixth lap, before pulling out comfortable lead of nearly four seconds as Jones and Chadwick became embroiled in a battle that ended with contact leaving Chadwick down in sixth.

Cruising to victory Stuart eventually won the 19 lap affair by 2.2 seconds from Jones, with Chris Chisnall, the beneficiary of a last lap clash between James Cole and Barry Linley, completing the podium. A delighted Stuart commented, “A perfect weekend for the team and we have started our season in the best possible way. I made a superb start, probably the best I have ever made from pole position. After that Gary Jones gave me a wake up call early on in the race, but as soon as I retook the lead I was able to put in some consistent laps and pull out a comfortable lead. It was then a case of bringing the car home and making no mistakes.

A massive thank you must go to BBE Power who have provided us with another strong motor for this year, Oldfields Auto’s of Southport for their race support and the whole team for all their hard work and preparation. The car was faultless all weekend and we go into the second round of the championship in two weeks full of confidence.”

Round two of the championship takes place on the International layout of Oulton Park on April 14th.