The British F3 Championship rolls into Rockingham on Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st May.
Current Standings in the championship:
T Sowery: 127
R Collard: 108
T Randle: 93
M Leist: 92
E Ahmed: 92
The Timetable for the weekend is as follows:
Timetable
Saturday 30th April
Qualifying: 10:55
Race One: 15:05
Sunday 1st May
Race Two: 09:50
Race Three: 15:45
Thomas Randle will be hoping to continue where he left off at Rockingham where he achieved his first podium finish this season and Enaam Ahmed will be looking to repeat the success of the first weekend of the championship which saw him top the championship leaderboard.
With a number of weeks to go until the next Ginetta GT4 Supercup round (04 – 05 JUN 2016, Oulton Park), we take a look back at the first two meetings of the championship, Brands Hatch Indy on the opening weekend of the championship year and Donington Park on 16-17 April.
Will Burns, after teaming up with Douglas Motorsport for the 2016 season, began the weekend well with some good practice times and qualified in P5. He followed up a good qualifying session by taking 4th place in his first race with Douglas Motorsport. He followed this up with a podium finish (3rd place) in race number 2. The improvement continued into race number 3 where Will Burns drove superbly to take his debut GT4 win
“This first win has been a long time coming, so I’m delighted to finally get a victory under my belt in the Supercup,” said Burns. “I was sometimes doubting myself as to whether it would come, so it’s going to be a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and a big confidence boost for the rest of the year.
Will Burns: “To be honest we’ve been struggling most the weekend with getting the car where we want it, but the Douglas Motorsport team have been fantastic throughout and we’ve learnt a lot from this weekend to take into the next few meetings.
“Picking up points and podium finishes is key in this championship, so to start the season with three top four finishes is brilliant, and if we can get those results with a car that was by no means perfect, we’ve definitely got a lot more to come.”
In round four of the Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup series, Douglas Motorsport‘s Will Burns qualified fifth, Chris Ingram took fifteenth place with Mike Newbould not far behind in seventeenth.
In the first race of the weekend, Burns steadily improved as he started from fifth to claim a hard won podium position in third. Ingram successfully held his qualifying position, crossing the line in fifteenth, followed closely by Newbould who moved up to sixteenth.
Round five saw Burns improve again for Douglas Motorsport as he secured second place, Ingram once again improving to fourteenth and Newbould finishing right behind in fifteenth.
The final round of the weekend proved more testing for Douglas Motorsport as Burns finished in eleventh position, Ingram in fifteenth with an unfortunate DNF for Newbould. Burns now lies third in the title standings, meaning Douglas Motorsport is represented in the top three of all championships they compete in this year.
Douglas Motorsport continued their superb season with more victories at Donington Park last weekend.
The Simpson Race Products Ginetta Juniors once again did not disappoint. In qualifying, with times as close as ever and just .075 splitting the top four. Series leader Stuart Middleton claimed second whilst rookie Daniel Harper continued to impress with an incredible fourth place and Enzo Fittipaldi securing seventeenth place.
In the first race of the weekend, Middleton continued his superb 2016 form, claiming second place and increasing his all important series lead. Despite his relative lack of experience, Harper was sensational from the off, finishing in a superb third place and easily taking the rookie win to boot.. Fittipaldi also improved from qualifying making huge progress from seventeenth to cross the line in twelfth.
Race two brought more good news for Douglas Motorsport as Middleton claimed yet another win, once again increasing his championship lead. Harper also continued to shine as he finished right behind Middleton in second, for the team’s first ever Ginetta Junior 1-2. Fittipaldi improved again finishing in a respectable tenth position, his first top ten finish in this competitive series.
The final race rounded off a memorable weekend for Douglas Motorsport and rookie Harper as he took his first win in the Ginetta Junior Championship. Middleton finished up in a respectable seventh position and Fittipaldi was classified eighteenth, having spun out.
Stuart Middleton, Douglas Motorsport “ It was another fantastic weekend for me and the team. I managed to extend my championship lead from 11 points to 23 points with 1st and 2nd place finishes. Also teammate Dan Harper got his first main podium win and worked his way up to third in the championship, so we’re now also leading the team championship thanks to all the great team effort!.”
Daniel Harper, Douglas Motorsport. “It was a memorable weekend for me and and Douglas Motorsport as I didn”t only take my first podium in the overall results but my first win and Douglas Motorsport took their first 1-2 finish in Ginetta Juniors- Fantastic!!” Wayne Douglas, Team Principal, Douglas Motorsport: “We have worked hard to achieve these results and it is great to see Stuart continue to lead the championship. Daniel showed his pace at Brands Hatch and I am delighted he has converted this into his first win already.”
Having taking a win in the opening rounds of the BRDC F3 series last week, Douglas Motorsport carried their rich vein of form onto Brands Hatch for the opening rounds of the 2016 Ginetta championships at the weekend.
Harper excelled in Round 2
As reigning winter series champion, Stuart Middleton was the favourite ahead of the opening rounds of the Simpson Race Products Ginetta Junior series- and he certainly didn’t disappoint. Starting from pole position in the opening race, Stuart fell back initially, but fought his way into the lead before a robust move from Dave Wooder dropped him to fourth place. He fought back yet again though, and crossed the line in second place, also setting fastest lap. Race two, described by many as the race of the day, was a close fought affair, with Middleton grabbing the lead on the opening lap and soaking up the pressure for the duration to take an impressive win, and with it the lead of the close fought Junior series! In his wake, however, all eyes were on rookie Daniel Harper who was tackling the more experienced drivers with aplomb, incredibly running as high as third at one stage, before contact sent him back down the field. He recovered to take a fine sixth though and won the Rookie class comfortably. Enzo Fittipaldi was unlucky to receive contact on the opening lap, spinning him to the back, in no way reflecting the pace he had shown in free practise at the start of the weekend.
Will Burns Tops the Podium
In the opening round of the Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup series, Douglas Motorsport’s Will Burns drove superbly to take his debut GT4 win. having finished fourth in race one and third in race two, he didn’t put a foot wrong in a shortened race three to take a popular win- rounding off a hugely successful weekend for the Corby based team. Team mate Chris Ingram drove well to take a podium in the Am class of the Supercup while Mike Newbold progressed well over the weekend and enjoyed his first race weekend as part of the BTCC package.
Stuart Middleton, Douglas Motorsport “ It has been an amazing opening weekend of the championship for me and my team, Douglas Motorsport. We hope to continue our strong form and keep achieving consistent podium finishing results throughout the year.”
Daniel Harper, Douglas Motorsport. “It was a brilliant start to the championship for both me and Douglas Motorsport with some really strong results in the Rookie championship with a third and a win I race two and also with Stuart leading the overall championship. A big thanks to everyone at Douglas Motorsport and to all my family and sponsors.” Wayne Douglas, Team Principal, Douglas Motorsport: “It has been another strong weekend for the team. Stuart drove beautifully for the win, as we have come to expect. Daniel was a revelation and was unlucky not to join Stuart on the podium, whilst Enzo showed great pace, but luck was not with him this weekend. For Will to take a debut 2016 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup win was the icing on the cake for us too!”
The next rounds of the Ginetta championships take place on April 16/17 at Donington Park, once again supporting the BTCC.
Douglas Motorsport enjoyed a superb weekend at the opening rounds of the newly rebranded British F3 Championship at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend.
Having showed well in official testing, confidence was high ahead of the season opener but a red flag interrupted qualifying session worked against us. Thomas Randle lined up seventh for race one, just one place ahead of team mate Enaam Ahmed. In the opening race, Randle climbed as far as fifth before contact sent him off the circuit, relegating him to the back of the grid for race two. Ahmed, however, climbed to third to take his first podium finish of the weekend.
In race two, Ahmed came home in second place grabbing another healthy dose of championship points whilst team mate Randle charged to ninth from 20th on the grid, and could possibly have finished as high as fifth were it not for a 3 lap safety car intervention mid race.
A cracking start from the outside of the front row catapulted Ahmed into the lead for race three and he drove a controlled race to take his first win and third podium of the weekend. Randle once again made impressive progress, climbing to fifth by the flag.
Enaam Ahmed, Douglas Motorsport “I am really, really happy to progress from third in race one, second in race two and now winner in race three. It was not an easy race but I controlled the gap fairly well. I’d really like to say thanks to Douglas Motorsport and my parents, Wayne (Douglas) and Marcus (engineer) as they’ve given me a really good car and I love driving it. I’m really happy. Toby and Lando were giving me a run for my money and it was hard to keep them behind as I hit a bollard down the straight and I thought that I might have broken my front wing for a second. I’m happy to get my first win in race three. I’ve gone quite well at Brands Hatch in the past so now I’m really looking forward to that weekend.”
Thomas Randle, Douglas Motorsport. “We had a lot of pace going into the round but the opening qualifying and race didn’t go our way. However we were able to bounce back from it on Monday with ninth and fifth and still showing a lot of pace, so I’ve already got my sights set on Brands Hatch. Big congratulations to Enaam on scoring his first win in British F3.” Wayne Douglas, Team Principal, Douglas Motorsport: “It’s great to come away leading the 2016 F3 series, but the weekend could have been even better! We tested very strongly before the event and were confident of achieving good results. Enaam drove superbly to score three podiums and deservedly leads the points standings but Thomas had a tougher weekend- he will hit back soon though!”
