McKenzie claims sensational victory

In a race that featured mandatory pitstops for the first time, McKenzie's Fortec team made the best strategic call - bringing its driver in last of all the 21 runners and allowing him to jump poleman and early leader Daisuke Nakajima (Raikkonen Robertson Racing).

McKenzie ran fourth early on, after a poor start from third on the grid, but jumped Double R's Felipe Nasr round the outside at Deene on the third lap and closed down Carlin's Adriano Buzaid.

The Brazilian managed to hold McKenzie at bay for several laps in the middle of the race, while Nakajima edged away at the front. McKenzie eventually jumped front row starter Buzaid on the ninth lap, just as Nakajima dived into the pits for his mandatory stop/go pitstop.

McKenzie then began pumping in quick times, including the fastest of the race on the next lap, in an effort to build enough of a gap to jump the Japanese in the pits.

Fortec finally pulled McKenzie in with three laps to run and, despite a slightly nervous-looking stop, the Briton rejoined with just under a second in hand at the head of the field.

McKenzie reeled off the final two laps in comfort to take the biggest win of his career to date, beating Nakajima by 1.113s. Buzaid completed the podium, finishing well clear of Hitech team-mates Gabriel Dias and Will Buller who both enjoyed slick pitwork.

Carlin's James Calado was able to jump yesterday's chief protagonists Carlos Huertas and Jean-Eric Vergne in the pits to round out the top six.

Raikkonen Robertson's Colombian racer looked to have lost out after an early stop, but he managed to re-pass Carlin's Vergne and Fortec's Oli Webb on-track in the late stages to claim seventh.

Webb also jumped an out-of-sorts Vergne on the penultimate lap to take eighth, while Carlin's Lucas Foresti rounded out the top 10 after coming out best in a raft of early pitstops that almost caused two cars to collide as they exited the pitlane.

Menasheh Idafar again claimed National Class honours, despite being delayed behind T-Sport team-mate James Cole in the pits as the reigning British Formula Ford champion had repairs effected to his car.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Car    Time/Gap
 1.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec               D/M  20m06.462s
 2.  Daisuke Nakajima      Raikkonen Robertson  D/M    + 1.113s
 3.  Adriano Buzaid        Carlin               D/V    + 8.788s
 4.  Gabriel Dias          Hitech               D/V   + 18.230s
 5.  William Buller        Hitech               D/V   + 19.685s
 6.  James Calado          Carlin               D/V   + 20.274s
 7.  Carlos Huertas        Raikkonen Robertson  D/M   + 20.665s
 8.  Oli Webb              Fortec               D/M   + 21.396s
 9.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Carlin               D/V   + 22.351s
10.  Lucas Foresti         Carlin               D/V   + 25.627s
11.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin               D/V   + 26.381s
12.  Alex Brundle          T-Sport              D/V   + 27.311s
13.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin               D/V   + 30.124s
14.  Hywel Lloyd           CF/Manor             D/M   + 31.198s
15.  Felipe Nasr           Raikkonen Robertson  D/M   + 31.436s
16.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech               D/V   + 32.057s
17.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed            D/M   + 34.854s
18.  Maxim Snegirev        Fortec               D/M   + 39.288s
19.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport              D/H     + 1 lap
20.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision          D/M     + 1 lap
21.  James Cole            T-Sport              D/H     + 1 lap