Classic F3 enjoyed a flourish at the end of the season at Brands Indy and the Silverstone finals. At both races we had in the region of 18 entries. This dwindled a bit at Brands by the time the race came but at Silverstone, 18 actually started the race. In a wet qualifying session the first 6 were separated by just 0.8 of a second, oh how we hoped for a dry race. As we were on first at 1.0pm the rain had long ceased but the track had not completely dried so it was wet tyres which were going to suffer as the surface dried. Benn Simms, second to Graham in Qualifying and Jamie Brashaw, ninth, elected to go on slicks, which was unfortunate as they could have mixed it with the rest. Young Ben Mitchell was right up there in his first F3 outing in Simon Hadfield's March as the front 5 of Fennymore, Jackson, Mitchell, Caton and Shaw fought out the first few laps. Eventually Caton got the better of Graham to win by 7 secs with Ben Mitchell 3rd followed by Jackson and Price who inherited 5th when David Shaw mistook a white pit board for the Chequered flag and finished 3 laps earlier than everyone else! The slick shod Jamie and Benn came home bravely in 6th and 7th. A great advert for CF3 and it could not have been at a better time.
Minutes of the drivers meeting held at Silverstone have been posted.
The members must now decide on what calendar you would like in 2014. The HSCC have formalised most of their meetings and so have our French colleagues. As many will now know we have 2 races with them in 2014, the Silverstone Classic on the 28th July and the Brands Indy meeting on Sept 28th which will now be a 2 day meet. The HSCC have battled hard to get us a slot at the Classic so we need to repay them with a full entry.
So the two calendars, UK and French are below, so please respond with your suggestions. Do not forget Monaco on the 9/11th May which will be followed a week later by the Pau Historic meeting which is a round of the French championship. 2014 is definitely the year to be the owner of a classic F3 car!
April 19/20. Thruxton (DBT) x2
May 9-11 Monaco
May 16/17 Pau
May 17/18. Silverstone INT.
June 7/8. Snetterton x2
June 21/22. Cadwell Park x2
July 12/13. Brands Hatch Superprix
July 25-27 Silverstone Classic (with French)
Aug. 24/25. Oulton Park Gold Cup (DBT) x2
Sept. 27/28 Brands Indy (with French)
Oct 18. Silverstone Finals
If we exclude the 2 DBT races we have a 7 round championship which includes the 2 races with the French. Despite the proposed high entry fee for the Classic I think we should make that a championship round in order to attract as many entries as possible. Perhaps we should make only 6 meetings count!
Considerations:
1) There was general consideration at the Silverstone meeting to drop Snetterton, though I think we should try and keep that but ask Grahame to give us a race on each day. It is a double header after all.
2) We could consider dropping (for one year) our slot at Silverstone Int. If we put on a good grid at the Classic, that could become a regular feature. If we do that we would need a race at Donington in order to have at least one early season race.
We are planning an AGM on the morning after HSCC dinner dance at
Whittlebury Hall Conference & Training Centre, Hotel & Spa
Whittlebury
Near Towcester
Northamptonshire
NN12 8QH
at 10:00 as many will be there so we can finalise dates then. If you can’t make it please let us know your preferred calendar before then and we will consider all before finalising the calendar.
Below are the French dates for interest.
Regards
Hugh Price
F3Classic Dates
6 avril DIJON
27 avril Le CASTELLET
16 mai PAU ville
8 juin CHARADE only FR (F3 invités hors championnat)
29 juin IMOLA only F3 (FR invités hors championnat)
28 juillet SILVERSTONE (HSCC / Classic F3)
7 sept NOGARO
28 sept BRANDS HATCH (avec les Anglais- HSCC)
19 oct LEDENON |
