HILL OUTPACES TEAM-MATE PYE TO CLAIM BRANDS WIN

Aussie ace Scott Pye edged closer to retaking the lead of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain this afternoon at Brands Hatch, but the Mygale pilot could not quite make it twin wins at the Kent circuit. Instead it was his Jamun Racing team-mate Josh Hill who took the round 19 honours. Nonetheless, Pye's second-place finish moves him to within eight points of championship leader Scott Malvern's tally, and unofficially - with 'drop scores' taken into account - the Australian driver is 20 points in front of his English title rival.

The title fight is closing up in the Scholarship class also, following twin class wins for Juno driver Luke Williams after a race one crash put a premature end to Tristan Mingay's weekend.

Pye once again made an excellent getaway from the pole to lead, but Hill, from fourth on the grid, made an even better one to charge on to his team-mate's tail on the approach to Paddock Hill Bend. Enigma Racing's Antti Buri came back at Hill through Paddock, however, to push the Jamun man back to third.

But Hill had no intention of settling for third and fought past the Finn through Paddock on lap three to take the fight to leader Pye. A lap later Josh dove down Scott's inside into the Druids hairpin to assume control of the race. Hill, Pye, Buri and Emil Bernstorff moved clear of the pack, which was being held back by fifth-placed Malvern's recalcitrant Ray, and settled in to a four-way battle for victory. Though challenges came from each driver on every lap, no-one was able to break the status quo and that was how they finished.

Delighted by his third win of the season, Hill said: "I had to make a good start and try to get in front as early as possible. Once I was there, I knew that if I set a good, fast, consistent pace that Scott would find it really hard to pass me."

Pye made a lunge at the line, closing to within seven-hundredths of Hill's car, with Buri a further 1.2s back and Bernstorff - who shattered Hill's hours-old lap record - right on his tail.

Malvern simply could not live with the pace of the frontrunners but made his Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray impossible for his pursuers to pass. Dan Cammish tried and failed, then Dan de Zille, but Malvern proved immovable and duly secured fifth place, with sixth going to de Zille after he repulsed a late attack from James Tucker's JTR car. Tucker spun out at Clearways two laps from the end to gift seventh to his team-mate, Tio Ellinas.

Bradshaw gave the Century Motorsport Juno its best outing for many races to secure eighth, ahead of Cammish, Jeroen Slaghekke, Jake Cook, the lonely Scholarship class runner Williams and Raysport's Cormac O'Neill, whose first race had ended on the grid with a broken driveshaft.

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