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11th October 2020 - Mallory Park
Bankhurst banks it at the HSCC Historic F3 Championship
The Historic Formula 3 pack finished its season at Mallory Park in October with two great races as Ian Bankhurst sealed the title. Paul Lawrence reports.
As things panned out, the Historic F3 racers were fortunate to drop out of the rained off Castle Combe Autumn Classic and, instead, wrapped up their season at Mallory Park. Though a regular on the 1-litre F3 schedule in period, the cars have seldom returned to the Leicestershire track as historics. It was probably 20 years since the last HF3 race at the lakeside track.
Bankhurst put a marker down in qualifying by planting the rare Alexis Mk8 on pole by a fifth of a second from defending champion Simon Armer (March 703). Steve Seaman (Brabham BT21), Peter Hamilton (Tecno) and Keith Messer (Vesey) were all well in touch.
The opening race turned into a corker as three cars battled mightily. Sadly, it did not go the full distance. In trouble before the start was Ewen Sergison (Merlyn Mk10/14) who found his gear linkage coming loose on the green flag lap, leaving him with only first and second gears. He dived into the pits to tighten up the linkage and started dead last from the pit lane.
Also having problems was Hamilton, who spun the Tecno into Gerard’s and tagged the De Sanctis of Paul Waine in the process, putting them both out. Up front was a wonderful three-way lead contest as Armer, Seaman and Bankhurst turned the clock back half a century.
Unfortunately, a moment under braking for the Hairpin left Armer and Seaman stationary and only the closely following Bankhurst emerged form the corner as the red flags flew. With his rivals not running when the race was halted, Bankhurst was declared the winner as Messer moved up to second while Sergison drove a storming race to third. Team mates Andrew Tart (Merlyn Mk9) and Mike Walker (Brabham BT21) rounded out the top five.
Armer was unable to start the second race, and it was Sergison who got the jump at the start to take the lead into Gerard’s and pull away from Bankhurst in the early laps. Meanwhile, Seaman had a big spin at Devil’s Elbow and lost a lot of ground. By mid-race Sergison was clear in the lead but his luck was not about to improve as with two laps left to run the throttle stuck open and Ewen wisely retied the Merlyn.
That left Bankhurst with a useful lead as he took his second win of the day and the 2020 title, while Messer completed a fine day with another second place from Tart after Walker retired on the exit of Gerard’s with a failed fuel pump. Seaman recovered to fourth from Gil Duffy (Brabham BT21B).
