Douglas Motorsport have finished runners up in the 2020 British F3 iRacing Championship’s Teams’ standings following a stunning four podium finishes from two races across the season finale at Donington Park last night (14th June).
A sensational fightback from the Corby-based team has seen them recover from only scoring five points in the opening two races of the year to finish only six points shy of championship glory after recording no less than ten podium finishes across the last eight races.
Leading the challenge was full-season contenders Harrison Scott and Ulysse De Pauw, who went on to end the campaign in third and fourth respectively in the championship standings, while Callan O’Keeffe brought his two-event spell in the series to a close with a maiden podium finish.
The Donington Park Grand Prix played host to rounds nine and ten, with De Pauw setting the pace for the Douglas team as he posted the fastest time overall in official free practice, before putting himself third on the grid for the opening race.
The Belgian ace maintained position on a busy opening lap before slipping into second at the start of lap two, while behind Scott was also making progress as he rose from sixth on the grid to fourth within the opening two laps.
The former BRDC British F4 race-winner soon began hunting down Jake Dalton for the final podium position and grabbed the position into Redgate on lap 11. From there, the team-mates coasted home to a double podium finish for the third time this season.
O’Keeffe meanwhile enjoyed a brilliant opening lap as he rose from 17th to eighth in his blue and white machine, however he was unable to capitalise on the great start as an incident soon after forced him to make a pitstop and ultimately finish in 22nd.
The silver lining for the South African was that the full reverse grid for race two meant he kicked off proceedings in third position. Holding the place for the first few laps, a great drive down the inside at the Melbourne Hairpin on lap four gave him second spot.
Behind, De Pauw and Scott made immediate progress up the order from the final places on the grid. The former rose from 23rd to ninth at one point, however an ambitious move from a rival pushed him wide and ultimately led to a spin. He went on to recover from 19th to eighth at the finish.
Scott meanwhile was a man on a mission in his quest to finish runner-up in the championship standings. From 22nd at the start, he was sensationally into the top ten by the end of lap one and had settled into fifth by the time lap five came around.
A few laps later he was into the final podium position and he stayed there for the remainder of the race to complete a double podium finish behind O’Keeffe. Agonisingly it wasn’t quite enough to secure him the coveted vice-champion honours though as he tied points with Piers Prior, the latter getting second on countback.
“To come back from a nightmare opening weekend at Oulton Park to be crowned the Teams’ vice-champions and finish third and fourth in the Drivers’ standings is a fantastic achievement and something we are all very proud of.
“Harrison and Ulysse have driven superbly throughout and deserved all their podium finishes, while Callan came in at the end and got some virtual silverware of his own. The British F3 iRacing Championship has been great to be part of and thank you to MSV for organising it.”
Images from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
