| Round
9: Castle Combe 20 June 2010
ALMOST-PERFECT
PYE CLAIMS WIN NUMBER 5 AT CASTLE COMBE
Scott Pye's fifth
win of the season looked in a certain amount of doubt as the
lights flashed to start round nine, for the pole-sitter lit up his
Jamun-prepared Mygale's rear wheels just a little too
enthusiastically, provoking massive wheelspin. Fortunately for
Scott, those around him - his team-mates Josh Hill and Emil
Bernstorff, plus Daniel Cammish in the JTR Mygale - failed to
profit from his error, with Hill and Cammish slotting in behind
the Australian on the run through Folly and up Avon Rise. Danish
driver Bernstorff suffered a very poor start, dropping back to
10th on the opening lap.
Right in Cammish's
wheeltracks for fourth was championship leader Scott Malvern,
whose opening lap more than compensated for fuel pick-up problems
in qualifying which left the Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray pilot
seventh on the grid.
Pye quickly put his
startline drama behind him to ease into a half-second lead over
Hill, and then on the third lap Josh got it all wrong at Quarry
Corner, made slippery by dropped oil from Mark Harper's retiring
Mygale, and fell back to fourth behind Cammish and Malvern.
Malvern seized his opportunity to secure second, again at Quarry,
on lap four: "Both Cammish and Hill made the same
mistake," said Scott. "There was oil down at Quarry and
they went in too quick and locked up. I hung back and drove
past…"
By this stage the
other Scott was 1.4s up the road, and there was little Malvern
could do to rein in Pye. "I'm not sure if we had a problem or
whether it's simply that the Ray doesn't suit Castle Combe,"
said the English Scott. "But second from seventh on the grid
is a pretty good result after the problems we had in
qualifying."
Pye eased out his
advantage to nearly four seconds by the chequered flag, and was
more than pleased with win number five and a return to the
podium's top step after a disappointing time earlier in the month.
"Zandvoort was a bit of a disaster for us, so it's great to
get back on top," said Pye. "It was pretty much the
perfect race and the car was awesome, so all credit to the
team."
After his
early-race mishap, Hill recovered quickly to displace Cammish from
third and then hung on to the final podium slot despite race-long
pressure from Enigma Mygale pilot Antti Buri. Cammish's race
deteriorated quickly as he struggled with a brake pedal problem,
and then he missed a gear going through the Bobbies chicane which
led to the hotly pursuing Bernstorff hitting the back of his car;
both retired with suspension damage.
Buri and JTR driver
Tio Ellinas were the quickest men on the track in the late stages
of the race as they battled over fourth. Indeed Cypriot Ellinas
not only broke the four-year-old circuit lap record with his 1m
06.418s lap, but also recorded the first-ever Formula Ford 100mph racing lap of
Castle Combe. Buri held on to fourth, a tenth of a second ahead of
his pursuer at the line.
Zandvoort victor
Dennis Lind started 12th in his Fluid-prepared Van Diemen after a
coming together with another car; the Dane did well to fight
through from there to sixth at the flag, ahead of Dan de Zille's
Minister Mygale, which he passed on the fourth lap. De Zille was
seventh ahead of young Brits Jake Cook and James Tucker, with
returnee Chrissy Palmer claiming 10th in the Guest-class Juno.
Raysport's Tristan
Mingay led the Scholarship class from start to finish and was a
good half-minute ahead of the only other class finisher, Mexico's
Dani Domit. With Luke Williams' Juno pulling off and out with an
alternator problem after just three laps, Domit's score secured
for him the class points lead.
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