GP TRACK ACTION FOR FORMULA FORDSTERS

With seven different winners in the first 12 rounds, the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain couldn’t be less predictable as the series heads towards the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit for this weekend’s triple helping of race action.

The man on top of the championship is still Scott Malvern, whose Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray took over in front after winning the second round at Oulton Park in April. And he’s 37 points ahead still, even though the Essex driver hasn’t won a race since.

Scott Pye is the man with designs on catching the championship leader and, unless Malvern rediscovers the art of winning, he stands every chance of doing so before the end of the year. Australian Pye is hoping to be Jamun Racing’s sixth consecutive Formula Ford Champion and his Mygale has already won six races.

Last month at Rockingham it was young Cypriot charger Tio Ellinas who was on the best form. Ex-karter Tio claimed his maiden race car victory in round 11 for Northants-based team JTR, and then followed that with another resounding Rockingham victory in his Mygale. Tio is now just 16 points behind his team-mate Daniel Cammish and, if he continues on that sort of form, will be able to target a top-three championship placing at the very least.

Ellinas has yet to tackle Silverstone: “I will test there for the first time this week. I am happy because I will have two days of testing before the race, and that is all the time I needed at Rockingham. I am sure we can be at least on the pace of the top six, and maybe I can find one or two tenths on the others. But Silverstone is one of the best tracks in the country and it will be difficult, and the competition will be very tough.”

Cammish, last year’s Scholarship class winner, claimed his maiden outright race victory at Zandvoort in June but struggled to get on the pace at Castle Combe and Rockingham. At least one win from the trio of Silverstone races must be the Yorkshireman’s target if he is to maintain his title bid.

The season’s other winners have been Pye’s Jamun team-mate, Josh Hill – son of 1996 World Champion and BRDC president Damon Hill – and Danish hot-shoe Dennis Lind, who claimed the Fluid Van Diemen team’s sole victory so far, at Zandvoort. Among the other drivers who have visited the podium are rapid young Finn Antti Buri (Enigma Mygale), Jerseyman Dan de Zille in the Minister International-prepared Mygale and 17-year-old Jake Cook, nephew of BTCC and F3 driver Paula, for the Getem team.

There’s a needle match in the Scholarship division, too, between Raysport driver Tristan Mingay and Juno pilot Luke Williams, each of whom has won the class four times. Mingay is the man with the momentum and is undefeated in the last four races. It is hoped that Silverstone will see the return, however, of mighty Mexican Dani Domit, the double class victor at Zandvoort for JTR.

It is also hoped that ’09 Formula Ford Festival victor Chrissy Palmer will be fit to return to driving duties for the Century Motorsport team and its Guest class Juno, and that several other Guest entries will be appearing, including a car for the Dutch team Geva Racing and its pilot Peter Schothurst.

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