PYE DOES THE
DOUBLE DURING SNETTERTON THRILLER
30 August 2010:
Australian Scott Pye took a pair of fantastic Dunlop MSA Formula
Ford Championship of Great Britain race victories at Snetterton
today to narrow the points gap between himself and series leader
Scott Malvern to just 25 points.
In reality they are
even closer on points when 'drop scores' are taken into account:
Pye then has an advantage of three points with eight rounds
remaining.
Pye produced an
excellent wet-weather drive during the day's opener, round 16, to
see off a determined challenge from Daniel Cammish. Round 17 was
the highlight of the Bank Holiday weekend though; vintage Formula
Ford at its very best with Pye and Finnish star Antti Buri
duelling wheel-to-wheel, lap after lap.
With never more
than a few tenths of a second between the top two throughout the
16 lapper, the action was frantic but there was never even the
slightest bit of contact - just superb racing from two incredibly
bright prospects.
"That's one of
those wins I'll always remember as it was so close but incredibly
clean as well - we didn't touch once and Antti was very
fair," said Pye. "It's been an unbelievable weekend. I
have family coming over to England tomorrow from back home so it's
fantastic to celebrate this with them."
The Jamun Racing
driver started round 17 from pole thanks to his second best time
in qualifying, pipping round 16 pole-sitter Emil Bernstorff by
0.051 seconds. Pye's Danish team-mate was in impressive form on
Sunday to take his first pole start but he wasn't able to
replicate the same performance in race trim.
Pye led away at the
start as Bernstorff bogged down somewhat enabling Buri to slice
past into second in his Enigma Motorsport Mygale. Bernstorff,
Malvern, Invitation runner Garry Findlay (Fluid Van Diemen) and
Cammish all duelled over third which soon enabled the top two to
focus on their own exclusive fight.
Before the end of
lap one Buri moved ahead but Pye hit back at Russell Chicane the
next time around to trigger a constantly see-sawing battle for the
lead. Only 0.3 seconds split Pye and Buri as the race entered its
fifth tour but Malvern also then got in on the act in his Ray to
make it three for the lead at one-third distance.
Buri began to mount
a more serious charge from lap seven onward, posting the fastest
lap of the race, 1m 09.391 seconds (a new record), to close back
to within half a second of Pye.
With absolutely
nothing to split the two leaders, Buri piled on the pressure but
Pye repelled the challenge. On lap 11 the Finn moved ahead at the
Esses and maintained a slim advantage for a couple of laps but Pye
went back through at Sear after drafting Buri superbly along Senna
Straight and through Riches.
His lead only
lasted the length of the Revett Straight though as Buri instantly
sought a way back past and moved to the head of the field again at
the Esses. Building to a fantastic crescendo, Buri and Pye ran
wheel to wheel into Riches on lap 14 with the Engima man just
keeping his Mygale ahead.
Determined to add
to his earlier success, Pye challenged into the Esses on the
penultimate lap successfully but Buri repaid the favour on the
last lap to nose ahead at the same piece of track. Unfortunately
for him though he ran slightly wide on the exit and Pye shot back
through, enabling him to take the win.
Buri commented:
"It was a lot of fun, first of all it was a fair fight though
- that was really important. It was very tight between me and
Scott, I was leading on the last lap but I had a bad exit from the
Esses so I'm not so happy with that but second is still a very
good result."
All eyes were on
the lead battle throughout but behind the top two the action was
no less entertaining as Tio Ellinas charged through from eighth on
the grid into the final podium placing.
Working his way
into fourth by lap eight, the JTR racer got stronger and stronger
as the encounter wore on and after pressuring championship leader
Malvern for a couple of laps, he made his move for third at Sear
on lap 10.
As the lead battle
intensified, Ellinas and Malvern did close in but at the finish
the Cypriot driver was still 1.7 seconds adrift with Malvern a
further 0.9 seconds shy. Cammish ended the race in fifth, just a
couple of tenths ahead of Findlay.
Bernstorff faded to
a disappointing 10th place in the end, only 0.4 seconds ahead of
the impressive Jake Cook - the Getem Racing youngster fighting
through well from 20th, and last, on the grid after breaking his
Mygale's differential during qualifying. That damage also forced
him to miss the first of the weekend's races.
In the Scholarship
Class, Luke Williams bounced back from a problem with the master
switch on his Juno in the first race to take a clear win ahead of
Tristan Mingay - the latter having profited from Williams' problem
in the opener to increase his points lead.
Pye masters wet
conditions to hold off Cammish in Round 16
Rain ahead of round 16 resulted in all drivers running on wet
tyres, but before the race actually got underway, Philippe Layac,
Scholarship runner Williams and Buri - such a star in round 17 -
all came to grief.
Layac was unable to
get away from the dummy grid due to a small fire in his Ray,
Williams stopped at the Bomb Hole with his master switch troubles
and Buri made a costly mistake on the formation lap by running off
the circuit.
When racing
started, Bernstorff didn't get away too well from pole leaving the
way open for Pye to storm into a good early lead. Further behind,
Tom Bradshaw made a demon start from the seventh row of the grid
but he carried more speed into Riches than the conditions would
allow and rotated into retirement.
At the front, Pye
continued to lead Bernstorff with Cammish taking third at the
chicane from a fast-starting Findlay. Jeroen Slaghekke, meanwhile,
joined the list of retirees when his Mygale lost fourth gear and
the Dutchman wisely chose to pull out of the race to save further
damage to his gearbox.
Into lap two, Pye's
lead was 1.7s and he was able to keep pulling away from the
chasing pack as they squabbled over second. Cammish then took the
place from Bernstorff with the remainder of the top six, Findlay,
Malvern and Josh Hill, all running in close company.
No sooner was
Cammish into second than he began to pull away and Malvern too was
beginning to make more progress, taking fourth from Findlay at the
Esses on lap three. Cammish then began to make inroads on Pye's
early race dominance as the reigning Scholarship Champion closed
to within 0.8s.
Cammish piled on
the pressure to Pye but the Australian defended well and managed
to frustrate his pursuer. Over the course of the final seven laps
the gap between them remained at around half a second. Cammish had
a look at the chicane on the last tour but Pye held on.
Cammish thoroughly
deserved his excellent second place with Malvern taking the last
podium spot after moving into third on the seventh tour. On lap 11
he also posted the fastest lap of the race, and at the finish was
more than two seconds clear of fourth placed Findlay.
During the second
half of the race, Ellinas did a great job to climb from ninth to
fifth, but Bernstorff went in the opposite direction and ended up
seventh behind James Tucker.
Finnish driver
Jesse Anttila took eighth, an impressive run from 14th on the
grid, finishing a fraction ahead of Dan de Zille and Zaamin Jaffer.
Early front-runner Hill, meanwhile, ended his race with a spin at
the Esses on lap nine.
Race winner Pye
said: "In conditions like those it's key to get a good start
but very difficult to do. Over the first few laps I managed to
pull away, thankfully, and had a chance to relax a little bit but
during the second half of the race the pressure was really on -
Dan did a great job."
Cammish added:
"I caught Scott up really well but the conditions were
difficult, the car was so sketchy. To be fair to Scott he was
braking where I was braking and I didn't have the confidence to
try and go any later. I thought I had him at the last corner but
he just managed to hold on."
There's no respite
for the Formula Ford teams following their Snetterton outings:
they are back in action again at Brands Hatch next weekend in a
prestigious support slot alongside the DTM German touring cars and
the F3 Euro Series. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday (3 Sep),
with rounds 18 and 19 on Saturday and the 20th race of the 2010
series on Sunday.
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