Woking’s Double R Racing is relishing the resumption of the 2012 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series at Rockingham in Northamptonshire next weekend, 9th/10th June, when the fourth event of the season takes place at the venue’s International Super Sportscar Long Circuit.Fresh from a highly competitive outing in the Formula 3 Euroseries at Brands Hatch a fortnight ago, the team’s first ever appearance in the European championship, Double R is focused on achieving its best results of the British F3 season so far during rounds nine, 10 and 11.Dallara-Mercedes drivers Geoff Uhrhane and Fahmi Ilyas spearhead the squad’s challenge in the headline International Class and during officially timed testing at Rockingham last week, first year F3 competitor Uhrhane delivered his most impressive run yet.Lapping seventh fastest in the opening session, the Australian was 10th in session two and a superb third quickest in the first of the afternoon runs. An unfortunate excursion in the final outing of the day prevented a repeat performance but Uhrhane still ended-up within half a second of the top six on combined times thanks to his session three best of 1m18.835 seconds (93.69mph).Malaysian racer Ilyas produced his best time of the test, 1m19.161 seconds (93.30mph), during session one and concluded the day 0.6 seconds away from the top eight. Duvashen Padayachee, meanwhile, was second in the National Class at the wheel of his Dallara Mugen-Honda.“We’re feeling optimistic for Rockingham”, said team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt, “Geoff had his best run yet in the official test day there last week, he made a big jump forward and was only about four tenths away from the top six so that was very encouraging.“Fahmi has shown some good performances so far this season, he’s raced very competitively in the British F3 races and also the European round we did at Brands Hatch a couple of weeks ago. Our aim is to get both of them into the top eight in qualifying, we think that’s achievable.”Hieatt added: “Duvashen had a good run during the previous round in Pau, he’s had a couple of class wins so far and we’re sure he can take some more. He didn’t do the European round at Brands with us so we’re looking forward to seeing him back in race action next weekend.”
Since the test outing at Rockingham last week, Uhrhane and Ilyas have been at a training camp to prepare as well as possible for the resumption of the British F3 season. Ilyas heads to Rockingham 11th in the championship, Uhrhane is 12th and Padayachee is second in the National Class standings.Qualifying for rounds nine, 10 and 11 of the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series will take place at 10.45 on Saturday, 9th June, with the first of the weekend’s races following at 15.15. On Sunday, 10th June, round 10 will get underway at 10.40 with round 11 set to commence at 13.50.2012 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series Driver Standings (after Rd8):11th Fahmi Ilyas, 20pts; 12th Geoff Uhrhane, 5pts2012 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series ‘National Class’ Standings (after Rd8):2nd Duvashen Padayachee, 102ptsClick here for the Official Double R Racing web site - designed and built by Racecar
