Douglas Motorsport have carried on their fantastic run of form in the British F3 iRacing Championship with a pair of podium finishes during the penultimate meeting of the season at Brands Hatch yesterday (7th June).
The Corby-based team have been one of the teams to beat throughout the official sim racing series of the BRDC British F3 Championship, with team-mates Ulysse De Pauw and Harrison Scott both being regular fixtures at the front of the grid.
For Brands Hatch they were joined by Callan O’Keeffe, a former podium finisher in British F3 with the Douglas Motorsport. The South African ace settled well into the field and qualified 15th overall, while De Pauw and Scott finished up fourth and sixth respectively.
A great start to proceedings saw the leading duo establish themselves in the top four over the first half of the race, before Scott pulled off what the commentators described as the “move of the season” as he swept around the outside of his team-mate at the high-speed Hawthorns corner.
Three laps later Scott pulled off another standout move at the same corner as a perfectly executed switchback secured him second place from Jake Dalton. As he held that to the finish, De Pauw overtook Dalton on the final lap to complete a double podium finish for the team.
After an unfortunate incident led to an early retirement in race one, O’Keeffe was determined to bounce back in race two. He was in a prime position to do so too, as the full reverse grid placed him on the front row alongside guest driver Jonny Adam.
After a strong start saw him maintain second through the opening laps, sadly a spin while hunting down the race leader dropped him to sixth place. Another moment later in the race led to a pitstop, but he showed good pace in the closing laps to finish in 19th.
It was a tough race for De Pauw too, with front wing damage caused by a spinning car ahead of him eventually costing him over two seconds a lap to the other cars. The Belgian ace went on to take the chequered flag in 16th after a determined drive.
Race two therefore belonged to Scott, who produced a sensational drive through the field after starting on the back row of the grid in P24. Gaining nine places on the opening lap alone, the former BRDC British F4 race-winner was into the top ten on lap two.
Scott continued to make great progress and got into fifth at mid-distance, before holding position to the finish. That result moves him up to third in the points standings with De Pauw in fourth, while Douglas Motorsport remain third in the Teams standings.
“We’re delighted to have come away from another hard-fought evening of racing with two more podium finishes. Harrison and Ulysse drove extremely well to keep their noses clean and move forwards to the podium in race one, while Harrison’s race two drive was sublime.
“It’s a shame Callan couldn’t make it a clean sweep on the podium, but he’s got up to speed now in a competitive series and will be one to watch. We head into the season finale still in mathematical contention for both the Drivers’ and Teams’ title, so we’ll give it everything we have.”
The British F3 iRacing Championship concludes this Sunday (14th June) with rounds nine and ten at Donington Park.
Images from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
