Douglas Motorsport Continue To Shine- British F3, Oulton Park

Rounds ten, eleven and twelve of the 2016 BRDC British F3 Championship took place at Oulton Park in Cheshire last weekend, once again running alongside the British GT Championship.

In Wednesday’s official test Douglas Motorsport drivers Thomas Randle and Enaam Ahmed were both in the top three and once again, the team were confident of strong results. In qualifying, both had issues with traffic and when the chequered flag was waved, Randle was in third with Ahmed in eighth place.

In race one,  Randle nailed one of his trademark starts to perfection, almost taking the lead from poleman Ricky Collard on the run to turn one. In the early stages, the pair ran as one, with Colton Herta for company in third. Unfortunately, before Randle could mount an attack, a huge airborne accident for Ameya Vaidyanathan prematurely ended the race. Happily, Vaidyanathan walked away without injury, a testiment to the strength of the current generation of BRDC British F3 cars. Enaam had run in a battle from 3rd to 8th and finished in 8th, but with 4th fastest lap of the race.
When the lights went out for race two, Enaam made a great start to lead the pack away. A sideways moment meant he came under attack from Toby Sowery, the pair making brief contact before the Douglas Motorsport driver pulled clear again, crossing the line almost 6 seconds to the good. Unfortunately though, the officials handed down a penalty for his part in the early race incident, relegating him to second place. Team mate Randle was in a battle throughout finishing in seventh place.

With the grids for the third and final race of the weekend decided by the fastest laps of race two, Thomas and Enaam found themselves starting in third and fourth respectively. Once again Randle made a blinding start to split the Carlin Motorsport cars of Collard and Colton Herta. That’s pretty much the way it stayed for the duration with Randle second, taking yet another healthy haul of championship points. Ahmed rang strongly in fourth throughout unable to displace Herta for third despite a strong early race challenge.

Enaam Ahmed: The (second) race went pretty good for me but I made a mistake defending my position which led to the penalty. I respect the stewards’ decision and I will learn from it so I am sure it won’t happen again. The positive thing is that I set some good lap times and I won on the road by a good margin. I think that showed how much quicker I was than anyone else.”

Wayne Douglas, Team Principal, Douglas Motorsport: “A great weekend for the team with cars in the top 2 in every race. It’s a shame Enaam lost his win, but points make prizes. Thomas had his strongest meeting of the year and has now moved into 2nd in championship with Enaam now up to 5th. We now move to Silverstone and Spa which and I am confident we can continue our strong from at both circuits!”