Classic Formula 3 Newsletter 09/04/19

Our first meeting of 2019 was held in warm and bright conditions at Donington Park. Only 11 CF3 cars entered and that was reduced to 9 when Jon Finch withdrew and David Shaw, tipped as a possible winner, damaged his engine in testing the week before. The 9 were complimented by 8 URS FF2000 entries and 8 HistoricFF2000 cars who were taking advantage of the reduced entry fee for a second race on the day. Steve Maxted, a former CF3 champion, was returning to the series with an RT3/Alfa Romeo purchased in Italy and Fraser Gray, a friend of David Thorburn, was debuting in CF3 in the ex Gilbert Scott RT3/VW run also by Graham Brunton.

Adrian Langridge grabbed pole on his very last qualifying lap in Dad Andy’s March 803 with the three Ralt RT3’s of Maxted, Paul Smith and David Thorburn filling the next three places. However, it wasn’t as simple as that with an intense battle all session with pole changing hands many times. In fact Steve Maxted had it first on the two final laps before it was snatched away a moment later firstly by Paul and then finally by Adrian. Then came Ben Stiles for URS and Nelson Rowe for HFF2000. Hugh Price was next up for CF3 in seventh with Nick Taylor 10th, Rudolph Ernst 11th,Louis Hanjoul 15thand Fraser Gray settling in 9th of the CF3 runners.

Poor Steve Maxted’s RT3 jumped out of first gear when the lights went green leaving him stranded on the grid but David Thorburn made a cracking start to lead the field into Redgate pursued by the fast starting Ben Stiles, Langridge, Nelson Rowe and Paul Smith. Langridge passed Stiles on lap 2 and Paul Smith followed on lap 5. Thorburn was going well in the lead though Adrian and Paul were keeping him honest. Stiles and Rowe were having a real old ding dong a few seconds back and that was very much the race’s main attraction.

After holding the lead magnificently for 10 laps and showing every indication he could keep it to the end, misfortune struck poor David Thorburn when a stone got stuck under his throttle pedal rendering it inoperative, a great shame after a splendid drive. Adrian Langridge inherited the lead which he kept to the end finishing just over a second ahead of Paul Smith. Steve Maxted got going and moved up to 12th but in his haste to get to the front spun on lap 3 and dropped to the very back but then worked his way back to 11th overall just ahead of Rudolph Ernst and Fraser Gray.

With the unfortunate demise of David Thorburn, Hugh Price inherited the final CF3 podium position in 7th overall. Nelson Rowe just pipped Ben Stiles to take third overall and win the Historic FF2000 category, Stiles taking 4th and the URS win. Poor Louis Hanjoul unfortunately ended in the gravel at the old hairpin on lap13 but gratefully the safety car was not deployed and the race ran its 17 lap distant.

Donington Issues

1. After 3 laps of qualifying the safety car was deployed for the retrieval of a car in the gravel at Coppice. The safety car was out for three slow laps before qualifying resumed, after which most did another 3 laps. This is not on in a fifteen minute qualifying session, the session should be red flagged and restarted so we get the full fifteen minutes of track time. We have taken this up with the HSCC and the Clerk of the course and hopefully safety cars will in future only be used during races only.

2. We were allocated the garages and the scrutineers came and did us in situ which seemed to work well. If we do not get garages it is essential everyone parks in the allocated paddock space to make the in situ scrutineering work.

3. However Air Box testing also took place in the garages after qualifying when it should really have been done in Parc Ferme but not all cars where directed there. Hopefully we will get this right at the next meeting.

4. Tyres. We are trying to police the rule of a competitor only using twelve NEW tyres per season. Forms were distributed for competitors to complete and Avon will advise us after each meeting to whom (and how many) new tyres they sold. We will keep count but your cooperation to make this work would be appreciated.

Hopefully we will have a good turnout for Snetterton on 1st June where we have a one day meeting with two races. Entering opened on Friday 6th April. There is testing on Friday 31st May on the 200 circuit which is being used on the 1st June.

Hope to see you all there.

Hugh Price
CF3 Chairman