Australian Scott Pye took a pair of fantastic Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain race victories at Snetterton on Monday to narrow the points gap between himself and series leader Scott Malvern to just 25 points.
In reality they are even closer on points when ‘drop scores’ are taken into account: Pye then has an advantage of three points with eight rounds remaining.
Pye produced an excellent wet-weather drive during the day’s opener, round 16, to see off a determined challenge from Daniel Cammish. Round 17 was the highlight of the Bank Holiday weekend though; vintage Formula Ford at its very best with Pye and Finnish star Antti Buri duelling wheel-to-wheel, lap after lap.
With never more than a few tenths of a second between the top two throughout the 16 lapper, the action was frantic but there was never even the slightest bit of contact – just superb racing from two incredibly bright prospects.
“That’s one of those wins I’ll always remember as it was so close but incredibly clean as well – we didn’t touch once and Antti was very fair,” said Pye. “It’s been an unbelievable weekend. I have family coming over to England tomorrow from back home so it’s fantastic to celebrate this with them.”
The Jamun Racing driver started round 17 from pole thanks to his second best time in qualifying, pipping round 16 pole-sitter Emil Bernstorff by 0.051 seconds. Pye’s Danish team-mate was in impressive form on Sunday to take his first pole start but he wasn’t able to replicate the same performance in race trim.
Pye led away at the start as Bernstorff bogged down somewhat enabling Buri to slice past into second in his Enigma Motorsport Mygale. Bernstorff, Malvern, Invitation runner Garry Findlay (Fluid Van Diemen) and Cammish all duelled over third which soon enabled the top two to focus on their own exclusive fight.
Before the end of lap one Buri moved ahead but Pye hit back at Russell Chicane the next time around to trigger a constantly see-sawing battle for the lead. Only 0.3 seconds split Pye and Buri as the race entered its fifth tour but Malvern also then got in on the act in his Ray to make it three for the lead at one-third distance.
Buri began to mount a more serious charge from lap seven onward, posting the fastest lap of the race, 1m 09.391 seconds (a new record), to close back to within half a second of Pye.
With absolutely nothing to split the two leaders, Buri piled on the pressure but Pye repelled the challenge. On lap 11 the Finn moved ahead at the Esses and maintained a slim advantage for a couple of laps but Pye went back through at Sear after drafting Buri superbly along Senna Straight and through Riches.
His lead only lasted the length of the Revett Straight though as Buri instantly sought a way back past and moved to the head of the field again at the Esses. Building to a fantastic crescendo, Buri and Pye ran wheel to wheel into Riches on lap 14 with the Engima man just keeping his Mygale ahead.
Determined to add to his earlier success, Pye challenged into the Esses on the penultimate lap successfully but Buri repaid the favour on the last lap to nose ahead at the same piece of track. Unfortunately for him though he ran slightly wide on the exit and Pye shot back through, enabling him to take the win.
Buri commented: “It was a lot of fun, first of all it was a fair fight though – that was really important. It was very tight between me and Scott, I was leading on the last lap but I had a bad exit from the Esses so I’m not so happy with that but second is still a very good result.”
All eyes were on the lead battle throughout but behind the top two the action was no less entertaining as Tio Ellinas charged through from eighth on the grid into the final podium placing.
Working his way into fourth by lap eight, the JTR racer got stronger and stronger as the encounter wore on and after pressuring championship leader Malvern for a couple of laps, he made his move for third at Sear on lap 10.
As the lead battle intensified, Ellinas and Malvern did close in but at the finish the Cypriot driver was still 1.7 seconds adrift with Malvern a further 0.9 seconds shy. Cammish ended the race in fifth, just a couple of tenths ahead of Findlay.
Bernstorff faded to a disappointing 10th place in the end, only 0.4 seconds ahead of the impressive Jake Cook – the Getem Racing youngster fighting through well from 20th, and last, on the grid after breaking his Mygale’s differential during qualifying. That damage also forced him to miss the first of the weekend’s races.
In the Scholarship Class, Luke Williams bounced back from a problem with the master switch on his Juno in the first race to take a clear win ahead of Tristan Mingay – the latter having profited from Williams’ problem in the opener to increase his points lead.
PYE MASTERS WET CONDITIONS TO HOLD OFF CAMMISH IN ROUND 16
Rain ahead of round 16 resulted in all drivers running on wet tyres, but before the race actually got underway, Philippe Layac, Scholarship runner Williams and Buri – such a star in round 17 – all came to grief.
Layac was unable to get away from the dummy grid due to a small fire in his Ray, Williams stopped at the Bomb Hole with his master switch troubles and Buri made a costly mistake on the formation lap by running off the circuit.
When racing started, Bernstorff didn’t get away too well from pole leaving the way open for Pye to storm into a good early lead. Further behind, Tom Bradshaw made a demon start from the seventh row of the grid but he carried more speed into Riches than the conditions would allow and rotated into retirement.
At the front, Pye continued to lead Bernstorff with Cammish taking third at the chicane from a fast-starting Findlay. Jeroen Slaghekke, meanwhile, joined the list of retirees when his Mygale lost fourth gear and the Dutchman wisely chose to pull out of the race to save further damage to his gearbox.
Into lap two, Pye’s lead was 1.7s and he was able to keep pulling away from the chasing pack as they squabbled over second. Cammish then took the place from Bernstorff with the remainder of the top six, Findlay, Malvern and Josh Hill, all running in close company.
No sooner was Cammish into second than he began to pull away and Malvern too was beginning to make more progress, taking fourth from Findlay at the Esses on lap three. Cammish then began to make inroads on Pye’s early race dominance as the reigning Scholarship Champion closed to within 0.8s.
Cammish piled on the pressure to Pye but the Australian defended well and managed to frustrate his pursuer. Over the course of the final seven laps the gap between them remained at around half a second. Cammish had a look at the chicane on the last tour but Pye held on.
Cammish thoroughly deserved his excellent second place with Malvern taking the last podium spot after moving into third on the seventh tour. On lap 11 he also posted the fastest lap of the race, and at the finish was more than two seconds clear of fourth placed Findlay.
During the second half of the race, Ellinas did a great job to climb from ninth to fifth, but Bernstorff went in the opposite direction and ended up seventh behind James Tucker.
Finnish driver Jesse Anttila took eighth, an impressive run from 14th on the grid, finishing a fraction ahead of Dan de Zille and Zaamin Jaffer. Early front-runner Hill, meanwhile, ended his race with a spin at the Esses on lap nine.
Race winner Pye said: “In conditions like those it’s key to get a good start but very difficult to do. Over the first few laps I managed to pull away, thankfully, and had a chance to relax a little bit but during the second half of the race the pressure was really on – Dan did a great job.”
Cammish added: “I caught Scott up really well but the conditions were difficult, the car was so sketchy. To be fair to Scott he was braking where I was braking and I didn’t have the confidence to try and go any later. I thought I had him at the last corner but he just managed to hold on.”
There’s no respite for the Formula Ford teams following their Snetterton outings: they are back in action again at Brands Hatch next weekend in a prestigious support slot alongside the DTM German touring cars and the F3 Euro Series. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday (3 Sep), with rounds 18 and 19 on Saturday and the 20th race of the 2010 series on Sunday.
Provisional results
Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain
Round 16 (of 25) Snetterton 30/8/2010
14 laps / 27.33 miles
Pos Driver Nat/Home Team/Chassis Time
1 Scott Pye AUS/Mount Gambier Jamun/Mygale 18m18.238s
2 Daniel Cammish GBR/Churwell JTR/Mygale +0.548s
3 Scott Malvern GBR/Ilford Dempsey/Ray +1.781s
4 Garry Findlay GBR/Eye Fluid/Van Diemen +4.117s
5 Tio Ellinas CYP/Larnaca JTR/Mygale +9.003s
6 James Tucker GBR/Burntwood JTR/Mygale +10.066s
Scholarship class: Tristan Mingay GBR/Hailsham Raysport/Ray +1m 00.375s
Fastest lap: Malvern 1m 16.685s / 91.63mph
Round 17
16 laps / 31.23 miles
Pos Driver Nat/Home Team/Chassis Time
1 Scott Pye AUS/Mount Gambier Jamun/Mygale 18m 50.857s
2 Antti Buri FIN/Masku Enigma/Mygale +0.146s
3 Tio Ellinas CYP/Larnaca JTR/Mygale +1.855s
4 Scott Malvern GBR/Ilford Cliff Dempsey/Ray +2.770s
5 Dan Cammish GBR/Churwell JTR/Mygale +5.894s
6 Garry Findlay GBR/Eye Fluid/Van Diemen +6.124s
Scholarship class: Luke Williams GBR/Sowerby Luke Williams/Juno +43.641s
Fastest lap: Buri 1m 09.391s / 101.26mph Rec
Provisional championship placings
1 Malvern 417; 2 Pye 392; 3 Cammish 329; 4= Ellinas & Buri 300; 6 Hill 269 etc
Scholarship class
1 Mingay 376; 2 Williams 298; 3 Dani Domit 168 etc
TRS Graduate: Scott Pye was the 2009 TRS Rookie of the Year.
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