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Ryan Lewis continued his domination of the Avon Tyres British Formula 3 Scholarship with victory in both 20 lap races at Castle Combe today; the 20 year-old from Royston racking up his tenth win from 12 rounds. The reigning FPA Champion in his BES Plc T-Sport Dallara Mugen-Honda now holds an 87 point lead over second placed Barton Mawer, whose withdrawal from the series effectively puts his Performance Racing team-mate Stephen Jelley next up 97 points adrift.
Lewis blew away the opposition in the day's opening race taking victory with an eight second advantage despite dropping 12 seconds with a late spin. Starting from his sixth pole position of the year, Ryan made a great getaway off the line ahead of Jelley but a missed gear going up Avon Rise into Quarry allowed Jelley through.
As Lewis set about making his move on Jelley, the anticipated battle came to nothing, as Jelley was forced into the pits with a throttle problem. With the problem fixed, he rejoined the race but could only watch from afar as Ryan went on to take his ninth win of the year ahead of Vas Calasan, with Jelley taking third at the flag.
The second race, held in torrential rain, again had Ryan on pole and through the spray into the first corner; he'd made up three places to cross the line just behind his T-Sport team-mate Karun Chandhok in 14th place. As the more experienced drivers were losing control and crashing out, forcing the deployment of the safety car, Ryan was on a charge, posting the sixth quickest time on his way to another Scholarship win and tenth place overall.
“It's great to have another two wins as it's bringing the championship title nearer,” said Ryan. “Of course it's very disappointing to have only three cars racing in the Scholarship at the moment, so to get some good places overall is important. In the first race the first move I made off the line was alright but I bottled it a bit because I thought I was going to get too much wheelspin. Stephen and I were pretty much level on the way up to Quarry, I snuck up the inside of James Walker but then that set me up for being overtaken at the next chicane and I had a bit of tangle with someone. So then I thought I'd better get my head down and try and latch on the back of Stephen but he had a problem with the throttle body and that was it really after that.
The second race was really good; I made a great start, past three cars into Quarry and then when the rain got really heavy there were championship cars spinning off everywhere. I was really trying hard in that race, and was able to hang on to the back of my team-mate Karun (Chandhok), in one of the championship cars and posted some quick times so yes I'm happy overall.”
Results for Round 11
1. RYAN LEWIS BES Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 21:00.992
2. Vasilije Calasan Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 21:08.885
3. Stephen Jelley Dallara F301 Opel Spiess 20:35.142
Fastest Lap: Jelley 1:00.953 109.26mph (175.84kph)
Results for Round 12
1. RYAN LEWIS BES Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 28:05.228
2. Stephen Jelley Dallara F301 Opel Spiess 28:08.230
Not Classified: Vasilije Calasan 1 lap
Fastest Lap: Lewis 1:10.275 94.77mph (152.51kph)
Avon Tyres British Formula 3 Scholarship Points after 12 rounds
1. RYAN LEWIS 221
2. Barton Mawer 134
3. Stephen Jelley 124
4. Vasilije Calasan 83
5. Adam Khan 78
6. Ajit Kumar 70
Editor's note: Copyright free images of Ryan Lewis are available from the website below. All requests for interview should be directed to Cathy Metcalfe at the details below
Ref: ml00091
20 June 2004
For media information: Cathy Metcalfe, MPR Associates, Tel: 01327 352199, Fax: 01327 352908 Mob: 07802 332398, E-mail: cathymetcalfe@mpr-associates.co.uk, www.ryanlewisracing.co.uk
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