Monday 23rd April 2007

Donington F3 and GT report

Barwell triumph

---

Donington Park saw another excellent weekend of racing from the British GT and F3 championships, with Barwell Racing in particular enjoying a superb weekend with their Aston Martin DBRS9s.

British GT

A great weekend for Barwell Motorsport

In round three of the Avon Tyres British GT championship, Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler (#3 Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9)  took a well deserved win ahead of the Team RPM Viper of Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis. 

At the flag Harrington held a 6.2 second lead over Ellis, who was defending hard against a very determined Jonny Cocker in the bio fuelled Aston Martin, but held on for a nail biting finish with a gap of just 0.236 seconds separating the two cars after the 60-minute race.

Ian Flux was flying in the second half of the race after taking over the Rollcentre Mosler from Kevin Riley, but a brake problem blunted his charge and he missed a podium finish by one place and 9.3 seconds behind Cocker.

Round four saw a Barwell Aston Martin one-two-three, but the race finished in a bizarre set of circumstances. Tom Alexander snatched the win from Paul Drayson, with Ben de Zille Butler passing David Jones for 3rd at the final corner.

Paul Drayson had a 17 second lead as the cars began the last lap but the #1 Aston Martin started to slow down on the run out of Coppice, which allowed Tom Alexander in the #2 Aston Martin to catch up.  As Drayson sped up at Goddards  the third placed Team Eurotech Preci Spark Ascari of David Jones had to take avoiding action which allowed Ben de Zille Butler in the #3 Aston Martin to nip through to take the final podium position.

In the GTC class the Beechdean Motorsport Ferrari of Aaron Scott and Andrew Howard achieved back to back victories.

F3

Marko Asmer achieved the double at Donington

Marko Asmer dominated rounds three and four of the Lloyds TSB British F3 international Series, achieving two pole positions and two wins to take himself 34 points clear at the top of the championship leader board. Stephen Jelley raced to second in round three, with Greg Mansell scoring the first Mansell podium of the season.

 In round four Niall Breen finished second with Jonathan Kennard third – the latter winning the Donington Park Raymond Mays trophy for top placed British F3 driver. Michael Meadows triumphed in the National class in round three with Sergio Perez second. The duo reversed positions in round four.

Donington Park also saw the second PH fan forum, with 20 PHers winning free tickets and taking part in a question and answer session in the Barwell Motorsport pit garage. We'll do it all again at the next round of the championship, so look out for the next competition for your chance to win.

The PH fan forum

 

[Beefmeister]

Well, as Guy Harrington is an avid PHer, congrats mate!!!

[Graham]

Huge comisserations to The Moore Racing Viper. Just as they had started the get the car set up to competitive times in free practice, they hit oil at the chicane and hit the pit wall Hard. Apparently the car needs to go back to Oreca In the south of france for Chassis, engine, gearbox, dif !!! and body work..

[Marsh]

Thanks PH for the opportunity of getting so close to the action and meeting the team etc. Was a great day out made even better.


cheers,

M

[sprinter885]

Great British car, great British team- well done. Looks good for the season.

Be nice to see similar success for Richard Lloyd & Jaguar XKR GT3 in FIA GT series.

[guyh]

Beefmeister said:

Well, as Guy Harrington is an avid PHer, congrats mate!!!

Cheers! I was over the moon with the result, the car ran without fault. Seemed quite busy out and about, I must have let a good 6 people have a sit in the car!

Guy

[rimmer]

Beefmeister said:

Well, as Guy Harrington is an avid PHer, congrats mate!!!

ye what he said

[megy]

Well done to Guy, 1st on saturday and 3rd on sunday, not bad for his second weekend in the car.

Just a couple of shots I took, unedited.

[Chesta]

A good weekend's racing, congratulations Barwell & RPM et all....... Shame that SRO can't sort out some consistencey regarding regulations, air restrictors, ballast etc, but that's a seperate (historic) issue. Glad that the weather held out too, and congratulations to Donington for sorting out the parking & exit routes.

[c9/89]

Like to add my congratulations to all winners but a special one for the RPM viper team and Beechdean Ferrari after I spoke to both teams on Friday night in the garages, thanks for the chat and especially RPM for letting us look round the viper! Did you give us a mention after the podium? (you did promise!)Superb racing and well behaved on the whole after the 3 red flags in the first free practice! Thanks for a great show!

[williamp]

Fantastic, and well done Guy!

Now, about this Pheads forum. How do I find out about it? Its new to me

[garlick]

williamp said:

Fantastic, and well done Guy!

Now, about this Pheads forum. How do I find out about it? Its new to me

Before each round we announce a prize of tickets or hospoitality so keep an eye on the news pages before the next race. We also offer 20 places to PH'ers to join us in a chosen teams pit garage before the main race for a Q&A session- again we will advertise this within the news section on the home page a week or so before the next round.

PH will also be bringing you an in depth look at each time and their cars, and hopefully we'll be spending some time with a team during a race so we can see what it's like to keep a car on track during race day.

If any of you have any ideas as to how we shoudl be covering the series- please send me an e mail

Cheers G