FF CHAMPION PYE ACCELERATES INTO F3

The reigning Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Champion of Great Britain, Scott Pye, is to graduate to Formula 3 this season, it was confirmed today. The 21-year-old Australian, who won 12 Formula Ford races on his way to the 2010 title with Jamun Racing, will contest British F3 with Double R Racing.

Pye is the third Formula Ford Champion in successive years to graduate to F3: Wayne Boyd, the 2008 titlist, was a race winner in British F3 the following season, and ’09 Ford champion James Cole was a National F3 class victor last year.

Scott enjoyed his first taste of F3 power in testing at Rockingham earlier this week. “It’s hugely exciting for me,” he said, “and also very daunting because it’s a big leap from Formula Ford to a Formula 3 car. But I’m with a great team and I’m enjoying the challenge.”

Ex-F1 driver Perry McCarthy corresponded with motorsport-mad Scott for many years, offering advice and encouragement, before bringing him over to race last year in Formula Ford. Says McCarthy: “I am backing Scotty not just because of his undoubted speed in a race car but because he has the attitude and focus of a champion and I believe he is a Formula 1 driver just waiting to happen.”

Pye is hoping to follow in the wheeltracks of his countryman Mark Webber, the 2010 World Championship frontrunner and a former Formula Ford Champion and British Formula 3 race-winner.

Scott has many Australian backers behind him, including the Australian Motor Sport Federation, Australian Business and Triple Eight Race Engineering, the leading V8 Supercar team, whose boss Roland Dane said: “We are very happy to be supporting Scotty again and looking forward to him showing his potential this year. We hope that he will be the latest in the long line of Australian talent to succeed.”

Penny Mattocks, the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain co-ordinator, paid tribute to Pye on his graduation: “Scott Pye won Formula Ford with calm determination and a splendid success rate. Scott is fluent both on track and in interviews, and a really popular guy in the paddock. We are euphoric that once again the best in Formula Ford has stepped into a fabulous opportunity in Formula 3, and know that he will be a great credit to the team and prove himself worthy of one of the best single-seater championships in the world.”

The battle to succeed Pye as the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Champion gets underway at the BRSCC Midland Centre Silverstone meeting on 9/10th April. For more information about the Championship visit www.britishformulaford.co.uk