FFord: Pye fastest at first test

Australian Scott Pye topped the first official Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain test at Oulton Park this week.

The 20-year-old, who finished third in both the Australian Formula Ford Championship and New Zealand Toyota Racing Series last year, lapped the Cheshire circuit in a time of 1:40.002s in a Jamun Motorsport Mygale, almost a second quicker than last year’s pole position time.

"I'm very pleased,” Pye said. “I had a test with Jamun a month or so ago in Spain, so I knew what to expect from the team and the car, but it's a tough job to come to a new circuit in a new country and be quickest."

National Formula Ford 1600 champion, Scott Malvern, was second fastest in a Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray, while last year’s Scholarship Class winner, Daniel Cammish, was third quickest in a Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum.

The Fluid Motorsport Van Diemen of Jesse Anttila made it four different manufacturers in the top four places as he edged out the Ray of Danish driver, Jesper Egebart, and the Jamun Mygale of Josh Hill.

Defending champions, Jamun, also ran cars for Dutch rookie Jeroen Slaghekke, who was fastest of the Scholarship Class drivers, and Portuguese racer Emil Bernstorff, while JTR gave a run out to GP Shootout winner Tio Elinas and also had Chrissy Palmer, who will race in Formula Renault UK this year, on hand to do some development work.

22 drivers were present at the test.

Testing times

1 4 C Scott PYE Jamun Racing 1:40.002
2 14 C Scott MALVERN Cliff Dempsey Racing 1:40.379
3 9 C Daniel CAMMISH Kevin Mills Racing 1:40.627
4 5 C Jesse ANTTILA Fluid Motorsport 1:41.015
5 28 C Jesper EGEBART Brits Academy/Egebart Motorsport 1:41.066
6 2 C Josh HILL Jamun Racing 1:41.069
7 20 C Chrissy PALMER JTR 1:41.138
8 1 S Jeroen SLAGHEKKE Jamun Racing 1:41.214
9 3 S Emil BERNSTORFF Jamun Racing 1:41.670
10 6 C James TUCKER Fluid Motorsport 1:42.151
11 15 C Cormac O'NEILL Cliff Dempsey Racing 1:42.364
12 25 C Jake GREEN Juno 1:42.557
13 19 C Tio ELINAS JTR 1:43.598
14 13 C Josh BENSON GV 1:43.811
15 10 C Zaamin JAFFER Raysport/Circuit Design 1:43.893
16 11 S Tristan MINGAY Raysport 1:44.570
17 16 C David ELLERSLEY Spirit 1:45.510
18 17 C BATCH/LINDSAY DW Racing 1:48.503
19 21 C Mark HARPER Harkesport 1:51.084
20 22 S PARSLEY/GRANT Harkesport 2:06.438

Watch the Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain on Motors TV (Sky Channel 413, Virgin Media 545) in 2010.


Andy Wilkinson