The Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain is all set for a cliffhanger finish next weekend at Brands Hatch following a pair of thrilling races at Donington Park in the penultimate meeting of the 2010 season. Josh Hill and Dan Cammish took the wins at Donington but it was drama involving title protagonists Scott Pye and Scott Malvern which shook up the championship standings, putting Malvern back on top with two races to run.
Pye finished third - well ahead of Malvern - in race one, but contact in race two between them, triggered when Malvern was punted from behind into the back of Pye’s car, put Pye out at mid-distance. Malvern hobbled home second to return to the top of the championship standings.
Malvern’s on-paper lead is 13 points but, as he has scored in every race, he must drop his two worst results, totalling 20 points. Thus Pye still has the championship advantage, albeit a slender seven-point one.
There will be a down-to-the-wire finish at Brands for the Scholarship Championship title also, in which Tristan Mingay leads Luke Williams by 16 points, the Ray driver having won the class battle twice in their three Donington outings.
Round 22Josh Hill underlined his increasing competitiveness in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain with a brilliant last-gasp victory in the first of the day’s races, impressing the sizeable BTCC crowd at the newly reopened Leicestershire circuit.
Hill’s Jamun Racing-prepared Mygale nabbed the win from the clutches of JTR driver Tio Ellinas at the final corner, beating the Cypriot to the chequered flag by 0.093s to record his second win of the weekend and his fifth of the season.
As in Saturday’s race, a damp track made the going tough for the drivers and the team engineers struggling to find a perfect set-up for the treacherous conditions. Pole position man Pye, who struggled for grip yesterday, found his Jamun Mygale much more to his liking and led the opening lap. Nonetheless the Australian had to yield to Hill out of Redgate corner at the start of the second lap, and Scott then lost second to Ellinas before the lap’s end.
Any hopes Josh may have had of building an early lead were dashed by a charging Ellinas, who quickly latched on to his tail, with Cammish’s JTR Mygale slotting into third after passing Pye on lap three.
Hill kept his head during a three-lap safety car period - triggered by the need to retrieve Zaamin Jaffer’s Ray from the gravel trap into which it had spun - and led lap eight before suffering a momentary wobble at Coppice next time around. This allowed Ellinas to close on to his tail and for Tio to pull alongside before nipping through to take the lead at the chicane.
Hill fought back at the next turn, Redgate, to regain top spot, only to lose the lead once more to Ellinas at the same corner next time around. The JTR driver led from the 11th lap right up to the final corner, where Hill pressured him into a slight mistake, found better traction, and rocketed past to claim one of the tightest wins of the year.
“That last lap was pretty exciting,” said Josh. “I knew I was faster than Tio over the first half of the lap, and that I could keep up with him through McLeans and Coppice. I managed to get a better run out of Coppice and I knew that my only chance would be at the chicane; I made him defend a bit and pressured him into a mistake. I was really excited to come across the line first.”
Cammish’s hopes of third place took a dive at the post-safety car restart when he hooked a wheel on to the grass at Redgate and flew off through the gravel trap; he regained the circuit dead last. Another in trouble at Redgate was Malvern, whose Ray went gravel-tracking on lap four, dropping him from eighth to 14th: “I was trying too hard and made a mistake,” he said.
With Cammish exiting stage left, Pye moved back into third place, which he held to the end ahead of his Jamun team-mate Emil Bernstorff. James Tucker collected fifth for JTR with Antti Buri recovering well from an early spin to claim sixth for Enigma Motorsport and complete a Mygale clean sweep of the top six.
Guest driver Garry Findlay’s Van Diemen placed seventh, ahead of Jeroen Slaghekke and Cammish, who broke his day-old circuit lap record during his fight back from the tail end to ninth. Malvern recovered to 10th, ahead of Dan de Zille’s Minister Mygale and Cormac O’Neill’s Ray.
Both of the Scholarship class contenders, Tristan Mingay (Ray) and Luke Williams (Juno), suffered spins, Mingay overhauling his rival three laps from the end to claim his second class victory of the weekend and his ninth of the year.
Round 23For the third race in succession pole-man Pye it was who led the opening lap, only to lose top spot on lap two. This time it was Cammish who demoted the Australian, passing him with a swift and decisive manoeuvre through Redgate corner. Malvern had meanwhile made an electrifying start from sixth on the grid to jump past the Jamun cars of Bernstorff and Hill.
Ellinas slipped from third to sixth in a second-lap sort-out, which promoted Malvern into the top three, and then, on lap three, Malvern got the better exit from Coppice to pull alongside Pye down the Dunlop straight and then nipped through for second at the chicane.
“I got past Scott,” said Malvern, “but then I got hit from behind - I’m not sure who it was - and that bent a wishbone at the back of my car and Scott was able to retake me.” Damaged car or not, Malvern was not going to relent in his pursuit of second place, even if a recovering Ellinas was by now right on his tail.
On lap seven Pye was forced into an error at the chicane and locked up, the Australian cutting the corner but managing to stay ahead. But before the stewards had had a chance to decide whether Pye had gained an unfair advantage came the eighth-lap collision which accounted for the demise of four cars.
A nudge from Ellinas as he tackled the chicane bumped Malvern into the rear end of Pye’s car. Pye spun off, accompanied by pursuers James Tucker and Garry Findlay, and Ellinas lasted only as far as Redgate before his damaged Mygale gave up the struggle. “The collision with Scott was certainly not intentional on my part,” said Malvern. “I got a substantial hit from behind and my car was quite badly bent.”
Out in front, Cammish had by this stage built a seven-second lead. He could barely believe it when he saw the safety car on track: “I nearly cried,” said Dan. He need not have worried, for when the safety car peeled off after four processional laps, Cammish made a perfect getaway and Malvern’s damaged Ray was no match for him. Cammish crossed the line 2.3s in the clear: “In the end it was all surprisingly easy - and nothing is ever easy in Formula Ford,” added Dan, whose grip on championship third is much strengthened.
Malvern had to fight hard to cling on to second place, such was the pressure from the newly promoted third-place man Slaghekke. The Dutch driver had to settle for third but was delighted nonetheless with his maiden Formula Ford GB podium, and to be the leading Jamun team finisher.
With the retirement list stretched to include Hill, who spun off in tandem with his team-mate Bernstorff at McLeans on lap five, and Buri, who tagged a spinning de Zille after the restart, several drivers were promoted to score their best finishes of the season. Frenchman Philippe Layac was fourth in his Antel-run Ray, a couple of seconds clear of Indian driver Zaamin Jaffer’s works Ray, and Ireland’s Cormac O’Neill made it four Rays in the top six.
Bernstorff recovered to seventh ahead of guest driver Andrew Richardson’s Van Diemen and the Juno of Scholarship class victor Williams, who beat his class title rival Mingay to the line for the first time at Donington. De Zille placed 11th, and gained the extra point for fastest lap - a new lap record - to boot.
Provisional resultsDunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great BritainRound 22 (of 25) Donington Park 19/9/201013 laps / 25.73 milesPos Driver Nat/Home Team/Chassis Time1 Josh Hill GBR/Farnham Jamun/Mygale 18m 30.900s / 83.37mph2 Tio Ellinas CYP/Larnaca JTR/Mygale +0.093s3 Scott Pye AUS/Mount Gambier Jamun/Mygale +0.525s4 Emil Bernstorff DEN/Cascais Jamun/Mygale +0.973s5 James Tucker GBR/Burntwood JTR/Mygale +2.607s6 Antti Buri FIN/Masku Enigma/Mygale +3.500sScholarship class: Tristan Mingay GBR/Hailsham Raysport/Ray +16.489sFastest lap: Dan Cammish GBR/Churwell JTR/Mygale 1m 17.029s / 92.49mph Rec
Round 2314 laps / 27.71 milesPos Driver Nat/Home Team/Chassis Time1 Dan Cammish GBR/Churwell JTR/Mygale 18m 45.580s / 88.61mph2 Scott Malvern GBR/Ilford Dempsey/Ray +2.349s3 Jeroen Slaghekke NED/Wassenaar Jamun/Mygale +2.593s4 Philippe Layac FRA/Paris Antel/Ray +3.904s5 Zaamin Jaffer IND/Cardiff Raysport/Ray +6.695s6 Cormac O’Neill IRL/Dublin Dempsey/Ray +7.471sScholarship class: Luke Williams GBR/Sowerby Williams/Juno +9.259sFastest lap: Dan de Zille JEY/St John Minister/Mygale 1m 09.383s / 102.69mph Rec
Provisional championship placings1 Malvern 536 points; 2 Pye 523; 3 Cammish 450; 4 Hill 411; 5 Buri 402; 6 Ellinas 397; 7 Bernstorff 332; 8 Jake Cook 247; 9 de Zille 238; 10 Slaghekke 223 etcScholarship Class1 Mingay 465; 2 Williams 449; 3 Dani Domit 168 etc
Final rounds: Brands Hatch 25/26 September
