Oulton Park was the venue for the opening weekend of the BRDC British F3 Championship, 2018.
A 3rd place finish for Jamie Chadwick in race 1 at Oulton Park this weekend was the highlight of the weekend for Douglas Motorsport.
Chadwick, with a year of f3 experience under her belt, made up a number of positions in race one, as did Jordan Cane who was a last minute call-up for the Oulton Park meeting. The result of race one on Friday saw Cane finish in 8th place, one place above team mate Jamie Chadwick. New recuit Arvin Esmaeili came home in 14th.
Race 2 saw the entire grid reversed, a change introduced by BRDC for this season. Jamie Chadwick, starting from 9th, climbed to 3rd place and was in a battle for the lead until the safety car appeared after a number of cars fell foul of the wet conditions. The safety car pitted on lap seven, but was out almost immediately after further offs. The red flag was brought out with Chadwick in 3rd place. A gain of 6 places (6pts) plus 15pts for 3rd place finish gave Jamie 21 points for race 2. Arvin Esmaeili completed his second race in British F3 with a top ten finish. Meanwhile, Jordan Cane’s race ended at the first corner of the first lap.
Jamie was very happy to make the podium on the opening weekend:
“When the heavens opened this morning, I kind of knew that would play into our hands a bit, especially with the way the reverse grid works,” …”I knew that we had a chance but I just had to stay out of trouble. The first lap was just about keeping clean and picking off positions where I could, while avoiding any trouble. I managed to get my head down from there, unfortunately I couldn’t quite challenge for the win today, it wasn’t to be. The spray was intense, the visibility was really bad but I’m pleased to be on the podium.”
Race 3 started without Jordan Cane, but Jamie Chadwick was able to push again for another good points finish, this time finishing in 7th. Arvin Esmaeili finished in 13th to round off his debut weekend in British F3, where he managed to finish all three races in what, at times, were difficult conditions, and conditions that Arvin hadn’t completed any testing in, having signed only a few days beforehand.
Next round is at Rockingham on the 28th/29th Apil.
