Australian ace Scott Pye has one hand on the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship crown following a dominant victory Saturday in the penultimate round at Brands Hatch. The 20-year-old and his Scholar-engined Mygale led the race from pole position to chequered flag to score his 12th victory of the season for the Jamun Racing team.
Pye’s win puts him back ahead of his sole remaining title rival, Ray racer Scott Malvern, and leaves the Mygale man needing only a top-seven finish in tomorrow’s final round - which he will also start from pole - to secure the title, even if Malvern is the race victor. He stands to be crowned the first Australian (and the first non-European) champion of Formula Ford in Britain since James Courtney in 2000.
One championship title was decided today: that for the Scholarship class, which went to dogged Raysport driver Tristan Mingay.
Pye’s 24th-round victory was a faultless display, beginning with claiming his 16th pole position of the season in qualifying by a three-tenth margin from his Jamun team-mate Emil Bernstorff. His start was impeccable, as was his handling of an early challenge for the lead from Minister International’s Dan de Zille, who made great use of his third on the grid - his best qualifying performance to date - to slot into second into Paddock Hill bend away from the startline.
Pye put daylight between himself and his pursuer on the opening lap, and worked at extending his advantage throughout the race to pull clear by 4.2s at the chequered flag.
“We had a fantastic qualifying session,” said Scott, “so my job was just to get my head down in the race and pull away, and everything worked out for us. It’s fantastic to get my 12th win and get back on top in the championship.”
De Zille drove brilliantly also to fend off the attentions of Tom Bradshaw in the Guest class Juno in the early laps, and then to handle Malvern, who made strong progress to slot into third on lap three after starting his Cliff Dempsey Racing machine sixth on the grid.
Malvern attacked de Zille hard at Paddock and at Surtees on the 10th of the 12 laps but was successfully repulsed and as a result lost ground, and third place, to JTR Mygale driver Tio Ellinas on the next lap. De Zille was delighted with his finish: “This is my best result yet on merit, and it’s been a great weekend so far, if hard work with Malvern right behind me.”
Malvern had to give best to Ellinas but fought off Bernstorff and Josh Hill to salvage fourth at the flag. Donington double winner Hill survived an early brush with Bradshaw to go on to break the circuit lap record on his way to sixth spot ahead of Antti Buri and Daniel Cammish, whose eighth-place finish was enough to secure the JTR Mygale-driving Yorkshireman third place overall in the championship. Jeroen Slaghekke and James Tucker completed the top 10.
Mingay went into the weekend knowing that a couple of safe finishes would be enough to clinch the Scholarship crown; he was thus content enough to see Luke Williams’ Juno lead the class in the early stages. Alas for Luke, his charge came to an end along with his engine after only six laps, leaving Mingay to pick up his 10th class win of the season and, along with it, the class title and its valuable prize: the loan of a Van Diemen chassis and Scholar engine, along with free race entries, for a 2011 championship bid.
It was a sweet success for the 20-year-old from Hailsham in Sussex, whose season was nearly brought to a premature close in a nasty accident at Brands Hatch earlier this month. “After what has been a long and at times hard season, this matters a lot,” he said. “There have been many ups and downs along the way, and it’s great finally to have got the job finished.”
Provisional resultsDunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain
Round 24 (of 25) Brands Hatch 25/9/201012 laps / 27.61 milesPos Driver Nat/Home Team/Chassis Time
1 Scott Pye AUS/Mount Gambier Jamun/Mygale 18m 04.755s / 91.63mph2 Dan de Zille JEY/St John Minister/Mygale +4.282s3 Tio Ellinas CYP/Larnaca JTR/Mygale +6.544s4 Scott Malvern GBR/Ilford Dempsey/Ray +7.228s5 Emil Bernstorff DEN/Cascais Jamun/Mygale +7.471s6 Josh Hill GBR/Farnham Jamun/Mygale +7.543sScholarship class: Tristan Mingay GBR/Hailsham Raysport/Ray +55.046sFastest lap: Hill 1m 28.754s / 93.32mph Rec
Provisional championship placings1 Pye 553 points; 2 Malvern 550; 3 Dan Cammish 464; 4 Hill 430; 5 Ellinas 421; 6 Antti Buri 418 etcScholarship Class1 Mingay 495; 2 Luke Williams 450; 3 Dani Domit 168 etc
Full results http://bit.ly/cckY0t
Final round: Brands Hatch 26 September
