2003
Avon Tyres British Formula Three Championship - Round 22,
Donington Park, Leicestershire, September 5th/6th/7th
© Stella-Maria Thomas and Lynne Waite
Race
Report - Round 22:
Weather: Fine, sunny.
After all the excitement of Saturday, Round 22 was always
likely to be something of an anticlimax, and so it proved.
With the Championship Class title decided, and Alan van der
Merwe (Carlin Motorsport) finally crowned champion, there
was less at stake for a lot of people. In addition, the weather
seemed to be settled as well, so at least everyone knew which
tyres to run with. To be honest, this was probably just as
well, as it gave most people a much-needed chance to calm
down. Except, that is, for the trio still fighting for the
Scholarship Class title. With Steven Kane (T-Sport) still
leading the chase, just from Ernesto Viso (P1 Motorsport)
and Karun Chandhok (T-Sport), there was everything still to
play for, including in Kane's case, a large sum of much-needed
money from the BRDC should he come out on top. With Viso being
advised by Kristian Kolby, and Kane getting help from Damon
Hill, neither was short of advice and neither could afford
not to finish the race. Chandhok had done his chances no good
at all on Saturday when he had failed to finish, but he was
still in with a chance and he clearly knew it.
The really odd thing about this round turned out to be that
the only three retirements couldn't really be called retirements,
as they all occurred before the race even started. First Fairuz
Fauzy (Promatecme F3) failed to move at all when the field
set off on the green flag lap, and limped slowly along to
the pit lane entrance and into retirement with a failed clutch
after the others had all gone. He was joined in the pits shortly
afterwards by Billy Asaro (P1 Motorsport) and Clivio Piccione
(Manor Motorsport), the former with driveshaft failure, the
latter with a broken gearbox. The result of this was a lot
of empty space on the grid, and an aborted start, which meant
the race was shortened by two laps and there would have to
be another green flag lap.
When the race finally got underway it was poleman Rob Austin
(Menu Motorsport) who made the best start, pulling away even
though van der Merwe tried to get around him as they headed
into Redgate. Austin responded to being leaned by leaning
right back, and van der Merwe had to back off or risk running
out of road. Jamie Green (Carlin Motorsport) was also trying
to go with his team-mate, but had his hands full dealing with
Danny Watts (Fortec Motorsport) who wanted to be third as
much as Green did. Watts duly took Green as they entered the
Chicane, only to have Green come straight back at him. As
the two of them went side-by-side into Godards it was Watts
who grabbed the advantage and held the place. Green was now
4th, just ahead of Michael Keohane in the 3rd Carlin car,
the Irishman heading up Ronnie Bremer, also in a Carlin car.
Nelson Piquet (Piquet Sports) yet again made a bad start and
was trapped behind the Dane in 7th place, which wasn't helping
his campaign to prevent Green taking the runner up slot in
the series. At least his start wasn't as bad as Robert Dahlgren's,
the Fortec Motorsport driver only getting away after everyone
else and having to play catch up for the remainder of the
race. Another driver in trouble from the start was Kane, who
was now last in class, behind local man Justin Sherwood (Performance
Racing), while archrival Viso was a long way ahead, leading
comfortably from Chandhok. To keep his championship chances
healthy, he needed to get ahead of Sherwood and Chandhok and
try to catch Viso. He'd given himself an awful lot of work
to do this time round.
At the front, Austin was showing no inclination whatever to
make it easy for anyone to take the lead from him this time.
He'd never won an F3 race before, and now he wanted to hang
on. Van der Merwe was sizing up the possibilities, but clearly
wasn't about to try anything stupid. No one was threatening
him, so he would sit and wait and if the opportunity came
along to squeeze ahead he would go for it, but he wasn't about
to force the issue, probably still feeling a bit guilty about
the way the previous race had ended for both of them.
Meanwhile, perhaps inevitably, Keohane managed to spin himself
out of contention, forcing Bremer to back off and allowing
Piquet to take a look at the Dane. In the end, apart from
Keohane's demise moving everyone behind him up a place, the
order stayed pretty much the same, with Will Davison (Menu
Motorsport) and Richard Antinucci (Promatecme F3) closing
in on Piquet. Behind them was Andrew Thompson (Hitech Racing),
who wanted to join in too but was busy keeping Viso at bay,
while the Venezuelan found himself fending off João
Paulo de Oliveira (Alan Docking Racing). Will Power (Fortec
Motorsport) was able to pass the Brazilian relatively easily,
but it's fair to say that the Lola-Dome finally looked like
a racing car rather than an incomplete engineering project
in de Oliveira's hands.
A lap later Keohane had limped into the pits and the order
was pretty static. It was rapidly becoming one of those races
that so often happen at Donington, where nothing much changes
and the whole thing turns into a procession rather than a
race. There was the occasional glimmer of excitement, most
of it caused by Dahlgren's attempts to hack his way back up
the order after his atrocious start, and Watts setting a series
of fastest laps as he tried to reel van der Merwe back in.
The only other real excitement came when Keohane re-emerged
from the pits, and started reeling off a series of rapid,
to say nothing of hair-raising, laps that would see him catching
the back of the field at a phenomenal rate. As he was three
laps down, there didn't seem to be much point, but it was
exciting to watch, if ultimately completely pointless.
Just for good measure, and presumably because he could, rather
than because he needed to, Viso passed Thompson, allowing
the Scot to slip into the clutches of Power, who seemed keen
to get by, but lacked the opportunity. At the front, van der
Merwe was trying to catch Austin, and was at least closing
the gap on the leader. However, no matter how excited the
commentary team became at the prospect of him getting past,
it was clearly not going to happen. Meanwhile, Piquet was
still trapped behind Bremer, which left the Brazilian in a
dilemma. He could try and pass the Dane, which would as like
as not end with at least one of the two of them sitting in
a gravel trap, or he could stay put and collect points for
6th place. Ultimately common sense seemed to prevail, though
he did have a look once or twice.
With Austin still leading from van der Merwe, Watts and Green,
Piquet was sandwiched between Bremer and Davison, while Antinucci
was holding up Viso, Thompson, Power, de Oliveira and Eric
Salignon (Hitech Racing). Behind them, Chandhok had finally
managed to put some much-needed space between himself and
Sherwood and Kane, as Kane tried everything he could think
of to get through. The trouble was, Justin knew the second
podium placing of the weekend was within his reach, and as
he doesn't get up there very often, he wasn't about to let
some youngster through to spoil his weekend if he could help
it! The situation seemed to be at stalemate. Matters were
made worse by Kane because he now had Reinhard Kofler (Alan
Docking Racing) breathing down his neck, the Austrian being
severely harassed by the recovering Dahlgren. None of this
was helping Kane at all
Some of the pressure was eased when Dahlgren got Kofler easily,
but then had a wobbly moment and managed to lose half of the
ground he had made up, dropping back behind Rizal Ramli (Team
SYR) and having to start again. Power, meanwhile, had finally
found a way past Thompson, with a somewhat wild manoeuvre
and was now in pursuit of Viso, who really didn't need that.
At the front, van der Merwe was still close to Austin, but
not dangerously so, and was taking some very interesting lines,
swerving very close in to the pit wall each time he crossed
the start/finish line. No one else seemed to be taking the
same line, but it didn't seem to be slowing him down any.
It was all a bit odd. Green was still looking for a way round
Watts, but he wasn't finding it, and at the back Keohane was
still really pushing, literally throwing the car into the
corners. He was still going very fast but it wasn't quite
enough to give him the point for fastest lap, so you had to
wonder what - if anything - was going through his mind!
The only remaining question mark was now hanging over the
Sherwood/Kane battle. Kane really had to have a go at getting
past sooner or later, it was just a matter of where and when.
Dahlgren was behind Kofler again, but this time he looked
like staying there, which meant that Kofler wasn't likely
to try anything. That left Steven free to concentrate on getting
past Justin somehow. The inevitable happened on the last lap,
Kane getting alongside Sherwood as they raced towards the
line. The trouble was, Sherwood wasn't about to give up, and
so they ran towards Godards side-by-side. As they came round
the final corner, for the final time, Kane spun and ended
up on the grass, allowing Sherwood to come home 3rd in class.
It looked, for a distressingly long moment, as if Kane might
not come home at all. The T-Sport car had stalled, and if
he couldn't get going again there would be no points at all
for him. Everyone held their breath as he finally got going
again and coasted over the line all but last, but at least
able to claim another 10 points. It means that he and Viso
go to the final meeting at Brands Hatch in three weeks time
with Viso leading the series by one and half points, and a
maximum of 42 points up for grabs. The Scholarship battle
looks likely to go down to the wire.
Meanwhile, a stunned and emotional Austin came home to his
first F3 Championship victory, while van der Merwe, in 2nd,
felt ready to celebrate his championship, something he hadn't
wanted to do the day before. This he did in some style wearing
a ridiculously tall hat in South African colours, and emblazoned
with Avon patches. He looked silly but also very happy.
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