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Historic Formula 3 Championship 2023 Provisional Points [pdf]
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18th-19th June 2022 - Donington Park Historic Formula 3 Championship Round 5 & 6
Harrison in the wet and the dry
Three days after finishing his A level exams, young Samuel Harrison was clearly the class of a bumper HSCC Historic Formula 3 Championship pack and won commandingly in both wet and dry races in his Chevron B15 at Donington Park (18/19 June).
The fabulous 28-car entry was reduced a little in the run up to the event with one or two cars not quite ready, but a fine field of 23 cars set out for qualifying in the rain on Saturday morning.
Having only been out an hour earlier in his Historic Formula Ford, Harrison knew what to expect in terms of track conditions and was immediately into the groove and set his best time very early on. That proved to be a smart move as a safety car period reduced the number of available laps and then increasing rain made it difficult to improve.
Harrison’s Speedsport Chevron B15 was a massive four seconds clear of Jeremy Timms similar ex-Reine Wisell car while Simon Armer (March 703), Ian Bankhurst (Alexis Mk8) and Jon Milicevic (Brabham BT21B) were next up, although Milicevic hit engine problems early in the session and was destined not to go any further. Sixth fastest and best of the very welcome European contingent was Christoph Widmer in his Brabham BT18A, although Francois Derossi was not far behind in his Chevron B17.
On Saturday afternoon, the opening race ran in increasingly wet conditions. Commendably, all but two of the starters were running at the finish, despite a number of spins and moments as the track got more and more challenging.
In the conditions Harrison was away and gone on the first lap and extended a big lead over Bankhurst and Timms.
Timms lost his chance of fighting Bankhurst for second with a mid-race spin at Redgate, but still recovered to take third well before Armer and impressive newcomer Josh Sharp (Chevron B17) rounded out the top five. Sharp had done very well to battle up from 16th on the grid on his first experience of racing the F3 car in the rain.
Behind Sharp, Mike Lamplough headed Simon Haughton in a battle of the Chevron B15s to take sixth while Widmer was the best of the visitors in eighth from Barry Sewell (Lotus 41) and Mark Linstone (Brabham BT21) rounded out the top 10. Barely a second and a half covered eighth to 11th places as Francois Derossi tagged on to the back of the group. Another good battle raged between Leif Bosson (Brabham BT28), Austin Widmer (Lotus 61) and John Waggitt (Lotus 31) and that was how they finished covered by a second and a half in some truly tough conditions.
Fortunately, Sunday dawned a different day. The clouds had lifted, the track was dry, and conditions were massively improved, to everyone’s great relief.
But the better weather didn't make too much difference to the overall result as Harrison still quickly went clear while Timms and Bankhurst led the pursuit. This time they traded the podium places as Timms took second while Armer was fourth ahead of Steve Seaman, who drove well to work his Brabham BT21 up from 16th on the grid to edge Sharp back to sixth by the finish of 16 laps and more than 20 minutes. By the flag, Seaman was closing in on Armer and was only just over a second down at the flag.
Meanwhile, Haughton was only a third of a second behind Sharp and then the battle of the visitors rounded out the top 10 as little more than three seconds covered Derossi, Widmer and Bosson.
With 21 cars finishing the second race and very few incidents in Saturday’s tough conditions, it had been a great weekend for Historic F3. The UK schedule now continues on the stunning Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit on 9/10 July when another strong entry is expected.
Paul Lawrence
Historic Formula 3 Championship Round [PDF]
