Burgeoning Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain talent Tio Ellinas signed off a perfect couple of days at Rockingham (Sunday) with his second victory of the weekend.
Mirroring his performance from Saturday’s 11th round of the campaign, the JTR racer produced an outstanding lights-to-flag drive in round 12 to win by a cushion of almost five seconds from Antti Buri and Scott Pye.
It was very much a race of two halves for Ellinas; the teenager from Cyprus didn’t make the best of starts but he managed just to hold off fellow front-row starter Pye into Turn One to seize the all-important advantage heading into Deene Hairpin.
From that point on Ellinas never looked back, but he was made to work incredibly hard during the first seven laps with Jamun Racing’s Pye never more than a few tenths of a second adrift. Ellinas responded well to the pressure though and from lap eight onward he was able to pull clear.
“It’s been such a perfect weekend, from the beginning everything went well but to win both races is incredible,” said the 18-year-old. “On Saturday we had an easier race, today Scott Pye was pushing me to the limit and my car was not so good during the first part, but I just concentrated on putting in some quick laps.
“I was able to pull out a gap towards the end of the race though and the car was really good in the last few laps. I want to thank my team, JTR, for doing such a great job and for giving me a great car all weekend. We have a lot of confidence now for Silverstone, hopefully we can do well there.”
While the race leader opened up a substantial gap during the second half of the 14 lapper, and posted the fastest race lap in the process, Pye came under mounting pressure from Buri.
Setting the early pace, the Enigma Motorsport driver got a second wind as the race neared its conclusion and into Turn One on lap 11 Buri was able to make his move for second place up the inside.
Pye, with the championship battle in mind, didn’t make things difficult for his rival but did tuck in behind Buri and started to apply his own pressure. Into the last lap just 0.2s separated the Australian from the Finn but Buri held on well over the final 1.94 miles to secure his second runner-up spot of the weekend.
Pye’s third place enabled him to claw back a few more points on championship leader Scott Malvern, the Cliff Dempsey Racing driver having to settle for fifth at the wheel of his Ray almost five seconds adrift of Daniel Cammish.
JTR racer Cammish made it an all-Mygale top four by passing Malvern quite early on and from lap six onwards the 2009 Scholarship Champion pulled well clear to consolidate his top four placing in the points standings.
Jake Cook delivered another highly impressive performance in his Getem Racing Mygale to climb through from 10th on the grid into a fine top six finish, leading home Josh Hill, James Tucker and Danish driver Emil Bernstorff.
The top 10 was completed by Scholarship Class victor Tristan Mingay after he passed ‘Invitation’ driver Nathan Freke - 2006 Formula Ford Champion - on the final lap at Deene.
Provisional resultsDunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great BritainRound 12 (of 25) Rockingham 17/7/201014 laps / 27.16 milesPos Driver Nat/Home Team/Chassis Time1 Tio Ellinas CYP/Larnaca JTR/Mygale 19m12.169s 2 Antti Buri FIN/Masku Enigma/Mygale +4.851s 3 Scott Pye AUS/Mount Gambier Jamun/Mygale +5.277s4 Daniel Cammish GBR/Churwell JTR/Mygale +9.069s5 Scott Malvern GBR/Ilford Cliff Dempsey/Ray +13.938s6 Jake Cook GBR/Rotherham Getem/Mygale +16.719sScholarship class: Tristan Mingay GBR/Hailsham Raysport/Ray +35.195sFastest lap: Ellinas 1m 21.454s / 85.74mph
Provisional championship placings1 Malvern 290 points; 2 Pye 253; 3 Buri 228; 4 Cammish 216; 5 Ellinas 200; 6 Josh Hill 188 etc.Scholarship class 1 Mingay 233; 2 Luke Williams (GBR/Thirsk) 205; 3 Dani Domit (MEX/Mexico City) 168 etc.
