DONINGTON DRAMAS SET THE SCENE FOR A GREAT FINALE

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 today 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.

For 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 Emil Bernstorff and Hill.

Tio 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 locked up at the chicane and cut the corner but managed to stay ahead; next time around came the 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 Jeroen 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 Antti Buri, who tagged a spinning Dan 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.

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