| Round
12: Rockingham 18 July 2010
PERFECT WEEKEND
FOR ELLINAS WITH WIN NUMBER TWO
Burgeoning Dunlop
MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain talent Tio Ellinas
signed off a perfect couple of days at Rockingham this today with
his second victory of the weekend.
Mirroring his
performance from Saturday's 11th round of the campaign, the JTR
racer produced an outstanding lights-to-flag drive in round 12 to
win by a cushion of almost five seconds from Antti Buri and Scott
Pye.
It was very much a
race of two halves for Ellinas; the teenager from Cyprus didn't
make the best of starts but he managed just to hold off fellow
front-row starter Pye into Turn One to seize the all-important
advantage heading into Deene Hairpin.
From that point on
Ellinas never looked back, but he was made to work incredibly hard
during the first seven laps with Jamun Racing's Pye never more
than a few tenths of a second adrift. Ellinas responded well to
the pressure though and from lap eight onward he was able to pull
clear.
"It's been
such a perfect weekend, from the beginning everything went well
but to win both races is incredible," said the 18-year-old.
"On Saturday we had an easier race, today Scott Pye was
pushing me to the limit and my car was not so good during the
first part, but I just concentrated on putting in some quick laps.
"I was able to
pull out a gap towards the end of the race though and the car was
really good in the last few laps. I want to thank my team, JTR,
for doing such a great job and for giving me a great car all
weekend. We have a lot of confidence now for Silverstone,
hopefully we can do well there."
While the race
leader opened up a substantial gap during the second half of the
14 lapper, and posted the fastest race lap in the process, Pye
came under mounting pressure from Buri.
Setting the early
pace, the Enigma Motorsport driver got a second wind as the race
neared its conclusion and into Turn One on lap 11 Buri was able to
make his move for second place up the inside.
Pye, with the
championship battle in mind, didn't make things difficult for his
rival but did tuck in behind Buri and started to apply his own
pressure. Into the last lap just 0.2s separated the Australian
from the Finn but Buri held on well over the final 1.94 miles to
secure his second runner-up spot of the weekend.
Pye's third place
enabled him to claw back a few more points on championship leader
Scott Malvern, the Cliff Dempsey Racing driver having to settle
for fifth at the wheel of his Ray almost five seconds adrift of
Daniel Cammish.
JTR racer Cammish
made it an all-Mygale top four by passing Malvern quite early on
and from lap six onwards the 2009 Scholarship Champion pulled well
clear to consolidate his top four placing in the points standings.
Jake Cook delivered
another highly impressive performance in his Getem Racing Mygale
to climb through from 10th on the grid into a fine top six finish,
leading home Josh Hill, James Tucker and Danish driver Emil
Bernstorff.
The top 10 was
completed by Scholarship Class victor Tristan Mingay after he
passed 'Invitation' driver Nathan Freke - 2006 Formula Ford
Champion - on the final lap at Deene.
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