VERGNE SEALS F3 SERIES

The eighth round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship headlined the weekend at Silverstone featuring a 2 hour race on the Bridge GP Circuit.

With mixed weather conditions for Saturday qualifying, the Ferrari 430 Scuderia of Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen wound up on pole position by a mere 0.054 second from the Philip Walker/Richard Westbrook Porsche 911 GT3-R. A number of race long battles eventually resolved itself with victory going to the Porsche 911 GT3-R of David Ashburn and Glynn Geddie. The duo fought their way up from a lowly 5th row grid position to overcome the rapidly closing Lester/Simonsen car to cross the line just 2.352 seconds ahead after the 2 hours of racing.

The Aston Martin DBRS9 of Andrew Howard and Darren Turner was a further 8.4 seconds adrift after a last lap effort to overcome the second Trackspeed Porsche of Philip Walker and Richard Westbrook. G4 honours went to Matt and Rob Bell's Ginetta G50 who had a full lap in hand over the next in class Ginetta of Paul Marsh and Ian Stinton.

Sharing headline billing the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series saw a trio of races, including the recently introduced compulsory pit stop format for the middle sprint race. The first race of the weekend suffered from the mixed weather conditions which allowed James Calado to take advantage of the increasingly damp track conditions to take a comfortable win over current Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne. Brazilian Lucas Foresti took third a further 14 seconds back.

Mexican Juan Carlos Sistos took the National Class from James Cole who made a last minute decision to change tyres and started the race from the Pit Lane. The international flavour of the Championship was to the forefront in race two with Brazil, Columbia and France taking the podium in the form of Adriano Buzaid (helped by a very slick pit-stop strategy), Carlos Huertas and Jean-Eric Vergne. James Cole improved on his second place the day before to take the National class.

Frenchman Vergne was back to the fore though in the third race of the weekend with a 1.2 second win over Buzaid and with it he clinched the 2010 Championship with six rounds still to go. Britain’s Oli Webb posted his best result of the weekend to fill the third step of the podium. Menasheh Idafar took an impresive fourteenth overall which gave him the National Class win.

Single seaters in the form of Dunlop MSA Formula Fords added to the weekend with another 3 races. Saturday’s event being taken by Aussie Scott Pye's Mygale SJ10, with another Scott – this time Malvern running in second ahead of Josh Hill. Race two saw both Malvern and Hill going one place better with a win and second. Pye this time finishing fourth behind Daniel Cammish – all four cars being covered by a fraction over one second. The final race for the Formula Fords ended with a decisive win for Josh Hill after a frought final lap with the two other Jamun Racing entered cars of Scott Pye and Emil Bernstorff rounding off the top three.

A huge entry of Ma5da MX5's enabled 3 races of full 48 car grids to take part in the weekend, with the usual groupings allowing each driver a couple of races. Race 1 gave Rob Boston, Tom Roche and Chris Dawkins the spoils – all covered by less than a second. Race 2 again saw Boston and Dawkins in first and third, this time split by Phil House. Tom Roche improved on his first race outing in the final encounter of the day with an impresive (by Mazda standards) 10 second win over Jonathan Greensmith and Luke Herbert.

Saloon Cars were represented at Silverstone by a couple of Volkswagen Racing Cup races. Derby's Peter Felix headed home a Golf 1-2-3 in the first event in front of Paul Taylor and Didge Dziurzynski, who also set the fastest lap. Richard Walker managed to get amongst the Golfs in the second race to record a win in his Lupo Tdi. Paul Taylor again taking second with the Beetle of Steve Chaplin leading home a very tight bunch consisting of Dziurzynski, James Walker and Peter Felix.

Both Ginetta Challenge Races saw the same outcome, a win for George Murrells, with Sean Huyton hanging on but not quite able to take the first place position in either race.

For the full results Click Here

Tony Carwithen