Nathan Freke`s chances of a 5th win in a row were hampered by a set of rogue tyres at Thruxton last weekend.

Nathan Freke’s winning streak in the UK Formula Ford Championship came to an end at Thruxton at the weekend. Having already clinched the championship Nathan hoped to continue his winning ways, but despite putting his Newnet backed Jamun Mygale car onto grid 2 for race 1 and pole for race 2 he was left winless and frustrated with the weekend. Nathan stormed into the lead in race one and after 2 laps had a 3 second lead on a damp track, however at this point Nathan’s car started to behave oddly and his lap times went from 1 minute 26 to 1 minute 35 during the 3rd lap. From her he drifted backwards until the car became undrivable and he was forced into retirement. Upon returning to the paddock his rear tyres had disintegrated which had caused the handling problems, several other cars suffered from the same problem and it became apparent that they were all from the same batch and much too soft.

Race 2 and Nathan was again away into the lead hotly pursued by 2 other cars, this time on slicks on a damp track. For 5 laps the three cars traded places when with Nathan currently in 3rd they came upon a car who had wet tyres, at this point a shower of rain dampened the track and for the next 4 laps the car on wets who was a lap down proceeded to race Nathan and this allowed the front 2 to get a gap. The wet shod runner finally pulled out of the race with 3 laps to go and Nathan set about catching the leaders when one of the cars collected a spinner in the chicane leaving Nathan in 2nd and despite catching the lead car on the last lap he could not make a challenge for the lead after being baulked by a back marker.

‘I am very frustrated at the results this weekend, the tyre problem in particular is not acceptable and it was a good job this was not the championship decider. The 2nd place in the other race is the best result the Mygale car has had at Thruxton so that is satisfying’.

Story by Clive Freke