CAMMISH OUT TO UPSET FAVOURITES AT ROCKINGHAM


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Cammish salutes victory at Zandvoort. Photo: Jakob Ebrey

Victory will be the target at Rockingham this coming weekend for reigning Formula Ford Scholarship Champion Dan Cammish as he battles to get back on terms with the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain pacesetters.

Currently third in the overall championship standings, 21-year-old Leeds driver Cammish needs good showings at the Corby track if he’s to have any hope of reeling in six-time race victor Scott Pye and the overall championship leader, Scott Malvern.

Cammish claimed his maiden race win for the JTR team at Zandvoort last month, but failed to make the podium last time out, at Castle Combe, where his unfamiliarity with his new team’s Mygale chassis caught him out. “Because I’m quite tall I had a bit of difficulty getting into the car, and because of how the pedals were set up I was having an issue with using them properly. The brakes overheated and I lost them. I dropped back several places before I figured what I needed to do to sort out the problem, and then the brakes started to come back. Unfortunately, that was when I missed a gear and got hit from behind.”

Cammish’s first Combe outing ended in retirement, but he fared better in race two to pick up fourth spot behind Jamun racing drivers Pye and Josh Hill, and Malvern. Now Dan is hoping that Rockingham will be a turning point: “I feel as if I have settled down into the car now, so I’m pretty confident. The big thing now is to start to win some races and to catch up with Scott Pye. My car is very good – JTR know exactly what they are doing and they put down a fast car, it’s just taken me a little time to get my head around the different driving style needed. I was on pole at Rockingham last year and I fancy my chances of doing it again.”

It’s been as easy as his surname for Australian Pye to rack up the race wins, but despite the 20-year-old claiming six victories from 10 outings he’s seemingly unable to topple Malvern from the championship lead. Cliff Dempsey Racing driver Malvern claimed top spot in the title hunt in round two at Oulton Park back in April. So far, that’s the only race that the Ilford lad’s Ray has won. But Malvern has been there or thereabouts almost every time since – in fact, he’s the only driver in the championship to have scored in all races.

Pye trails Dempsey by 43 points currently, and even if Australian Scott’s Mygale continues its winning ways, at the rate English Scott is collecting podium results it’s going to be a long time before the deficit is reduced.

There have been wins also this season for Hill, son of 1996 World Champion Damon, and for rapid young Dane Dennis Lind in a Fluid Motorsport Van Diemen. Any of the above, plus podium finishers Antti Buri, Tio Ellinas, Dan de Zille and Jake Cook, are in with a shout of race victory at Rockingham. And there are others knocking on the door: Pye and Hill have two rapid young team-mates at Jamun in the shape of Dane Emil Bernstorff and Dutch driver Jeroen Slaghekke.

In the Scholarship class – outright victory in which will earn the driver the valuable prize of free use of a Van Diemen chassis and Scholar engine in 2011 – there is a tense battle shaping up between Britons Luke Williams and Tristan Mingay and Mexico’s Dani Domit. Just 10 points separates the top three in the class, with Juno pilot Williams the victor four times, Ray man Mingay thrice and Domit, in a JTR Mygale, twice.

The championship will welcome another new driver to the grid at Rockingham in the shape of 22-year-old Hampshireman Ashley Grant, who will pilot a second Mygale alongside Mark Harper in the Harkesport team. Grant has extensive karting experience but will be making his circuit racing debut.

It’s hoped that 2009 Formula Ford Festival victor Chrissy Palmer, who injured his hand in a crash at Castle Combe, may be fit enough to once again pilot the Century Motorsport Juno.

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