The Douglas Motorsport BRDC F3 Tatuus-Cosworth was at Brands Hatch on 14th February to represent the F3 Championship at the MSVR Media Day. Check out these shots from Jakob Ebrey
The Media day for the LMP3 Cup took place February 14th at Brands Hatch and Douglas Motorsport were there with the impressive Ligier LMP3.
Douglas Motorsport are pleased to announce that karting star Tom Canning has signed to contest the 2017 Ginetta Junior Championship with the team.
In 2016 Tom finished as runner up in the Rotax Euromax Winter Cup, in Valencia, Spain, 3rd in the BNL European Junior Max Championship and also achieved 3rd in the British Super One Mini Max Championship.
Tom had his first experience of driving a kart at 6 and started racing at the age of 8. Having won both the Clay Pigeon Championship and South West Championship, he then graduated to the super competitive British Super One Championship. Against some of the best drivers in karting, he finished 7th in his first year and won the British title in 2014. Tom then secured 3rd in Europe at his debut in the Winter Cup 2015 in Campillos, Spain.
With nine wins and 21 podiums in Ginetta Junior in 2016, we are confident of challenging for the title in 2017.
Tom Canning, Driver :
‘Karting will always be an important part of my motorsport career, wherever I may go. However you have to move on to make progression to achieve your dream. This is the perfect time for me to move on and prove myself at the next stage of my development. I believe that Douglas Motorsport and I can achieve great things together and I am honoured to be working with them for the 2017 season.”
Wayne Douglas, Team Principal, Douglas Motorsport: “I’m delighted to have Tom, one of Britain’s top Kart drivers move into the Ginetta Junior class with Douglas Motorsport. We are excited about next season and hope Tom will enjoy great success in his Rookie year in cars.’
The 2016 Ginetta GT4 Supercup runner up, Will Burns, was recently named as Team Hard’s first driver for the 2017 British Touring Car Championship season.
Burns pushed Tom Wrigley all the way to the final lap of the 2016 season, and although accumulating the most points over all races, he marginally missed out on the title after applying the dropped points rule. Burns was 100 points behind the leader Wrigley at one stage late in the season.
Will was as a latecomer to motor racing, he started when he was 20 and progressed quickly to Ginetta GT4. Now, still only 26 years of age, his impressive performances in 2016 and previous seasons have earned him this move to BTCC and we would like to wish Will the best of luck in the 2017 BTCC championship. Seeing a driver progress in their career is a testament to the dedication and teamwork displayed at Douglas Motorsport.
Below is an interview with Will recorded over the final weekend of the 2016 Ginetta GT4 Supercup weekend…
The Simpson Race Products Ginetta Junior Winter Series took place at Brands Hatch at the weekend (November 12-13). Rookie of the 2016 championshhp year, Dan Harper, impressed with his pace all weekend and finished in 3rd place in the overall Winter series, with Seb Priaulx claiming the title ahead of Dave Wooder. Douglas Motorsport’s newest recruit for the Winter series weekend, Connor Grady, also impressed with 3 race finishes inside the top 8 and unfortunately was a victim of the weather in race 2 when he spun out.
Daniel Harper is interviewed after his 3rd place finish in race 2
The weather was always expected to play a big part over the weekend, as it always does during the Winter Series, and those expectations were met on day 1. The track was wet, but that didn’t stop Dan Harper from posting the fastest time early on in Saturday’s qualifying sesson, a time which he continued to beat as the session went on. In the end Dan took pole by the largest margin of 2016 – .731 seconds. It was that same wet track that caused Dan to spin his wheels when starting race 1 and unfortunately he wasn’t able to capitalise on his well earned pole spot. However, a red flag meant the safety car was scrambled and a restart. After the restart Harper was in second place to Harry King when the two made contact, which ended Dan’s chance of a race win. He did however recover to finish 4th, with Connor Grady in 5th, both drivers having made up a place after the race due to a penalyy imposed on Harry King who dropped to 6th place from 4th.
The rain was not as heavy for race 2, but the track was still slippery and it claimed Connor Grady on lap one. Daniel Harper made up some places from his starting position and in the last few laps managed to take 3rd position, and fought for second place but there were not enough laps remaining for Dan to improve on an already impressive 3rd place. The 3rd place finish kept Dan in the mix for the overall title with a qualifying session and two races left to run on Sunday.
Harper was fighting it out at the top of the qualifying table during Sunday’s qualifying session and looked set to take pole before Seb Priaulx snatched pole with only a few minutes left in the session. It was an important result for Seb as he managed to maintain his first position throughout the race with Dan Harper taking second, a five second time penalty imposed on both drivers was still enough to keep them ahead of the chasing pack. Connor Grady, who was part of that chasing pack finished in 7th, this time losing a place due to a 5 five second penalty, a good result nevertheless.
Dave Wooder and Dan Harper congratulate was other after a hard battle
The final race of the series saw Dan, in fourth place, battling with Dave Wooder for third place, but Dan wasn’t able to get the better of Wooder, who was also fighting to win the overall Series. Dan’s fourth place finish gave him a clear 3rd overall in the Winter Series, behind Dave Wooder in 2nd and Seb Priaulx who took the title. An eight place finish for Connor Grady meant he finished with 3 top 8 finishes, a good consistent performance from Connor, with the off in race 2 in tricky conditions the only dampener for him.
Overall it was a good result for the team and important for the drivers to get as many races under their belts, especially in tricky conditions, as they begin preparations for the 2017 season.
The 2016 Duo BRDC British Formula 3 Autumn Trophy took place at Snetterton over the weekend of October 29/30, and the Douglas Motorsport drivers put on an impressive display, with a car in the top 3 in every race, including 2 cars in the top 3 of race 3.
Recently crowned German Formula 4 Champion, Joey Mawson, made his F3 debut with Douglas Motorsport and ran at the front of each race and challenged for the lead. He went into race 4 with a chance of winning the title and would have started on pole as a result of the pace he showed all weekend, however the worsening fog at the racetrack meant the final race was called off, handing the title to Enaam Ahmed, who led after race 3.
Former Ginetta Junior champion Jamie Caroline, after spending some time testing the car the weekend previous, impressed over the weekend and his continued improvement resulted in a third place finish in race 3, giving Douglas Motorsport a double podium finish, 2nd and 3rd place. After race 3 Jamie was in fifth place overall and was in contention for an overall third place finish, had race 4 gone ahead.
Overall it was a successful weekend for the Douglas team, with two drivers gaining their first experience of British F3, and only losing out to a driver with a full season of F3 behind him. Enaam Ahmed, who drove for the team for the entire 2016 season, was able to use the experience he gained with the team to win the overall trophy, and it is a testament to the entire Douglas team and the experience within the race team to see former drivers develop and go on to further success. Enaam’s former Douglas team-mate, Thomas Randle, is now impressing in the Formula V8 3.5 Series. In the series finale, and only his second meeting of the series, he managed to lead the race for a time before finishing in an impressive 11th place.
