It was a great weekend for Barkingside racer Scott Malvern and his co-driver Nick Jones at Rockingham Motor Speedway; near Corby in Northants where the two tasted the victory they have been working so hard for and moved to the top of the UK Radical Endurance Championship.

But things didn’t start as planned when a delay getting out to the first qualifying session restricted Scott to 4th place as the rain came down early in the session. Shortly after Nick posted the 5th placed best time in his qualifying session. Scott was frustrated but still determined “qualifying was just a lottery today but I knew we were in good shape for the races so wasn’t overly concerned. The biggest problem is with conditions changing by the minute. You need a weather spy in the sky”

In the first race in damp but drying conditions, Scott made a good start and was up to 2nd by turn one and then had a race long tussle at the front with Scott Mansell which enabled partner Nick Jones to move into the race lead after the mid race pit stop and driver changes. Nick held the lead until the closing stages when he was just beaten by main championship rival Ed Cockill who was driving the 45 minute race solo this weekend. Once again Scott & Nick had come very close to a win but lost out in the closing stages of the race. Scott said afterwards “It’s been a familiar story this year but we are really knocking on the door now” and he didn’t have to wait very long for the door to be well and truly kicked open.

Starting from 5th on the grid in race two in the late afternoon sunshine Scott was in no mood to hang around and had the race lead by half way around the first lap. During his stint he really pushed hard but was also mindful of looking after his tyres for Nick’s stint spell at the end of the race. Scott opened up an impressive gap of twenty seconds on the rest of the field, enough to negate the ten second success penalty that had been accrued from race one and the team maximised Scott’s time in the car keeping him out right until the end of the driver change window giving Nick the opportunity to bring the car home to victory which he did in style with a winning margin of over twelve seconds. Scott said afterwards, I was on the radio to Nick the whole time and told him to take it easy the last few laps because his gap was so healthy that it wasn’t worth taking risks. The whole team has worked really hard for this so it’s well deserved and we are delighted especially as we now have the championship lead as well. We can’t wait for Silverstone in two weeks’ time”

The next event for Scott and Nick is on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on the weekend of 6th & 7th June and double the normal grid size, of around forty to fifty cars, is expected as many of the European Championship teams will also be entering this event. If you like more information on the next event or anything at all about Scott’s race activity then please get in touch with his management on 07940204985.