Lola’s F3 drivers were in the thick of the action on the flat out sweeps of Thruxton this weekend and each came away with useful points but also several hard luck stories.
After a successful test on the Hampshire venue last month both Steven Kane and Danilo Dirani were perplexed to only qualify 9th and 10th for the first encounter. A lack of straight-line speed on the quick Segrave/Noble/Church section of the track frustrated the duo, who were among the quickest in the other portion of the track.
With Dirani and Kane suffering from the same problems in the second session and thus qualifying 9th and 12th respectively, it was up to Charlie Hollings to provide some good news with his 5th pole position from the last 5 national class races. That was followed up with a close 2nd on the grid in the latter session for the Yorkshireman, who was looking to maintain the momentum from Knockhill the previous weekend, when he scored a superb double win.
After rain, wind, sleet, fog and hailstones in the previous rounds of this year’s series, race day dawned warm and sunny for the F3 grid. Making up a place at the start, Steven Kane showed the same feisty traits that have underlined his first season of Championship class F3 racing as he harried James Walker for 8th place. However, when two cars ahead of him caused a backlog at the Club chicane on lap 2, Steven was out dragged by his fellow Lola driver, Danilo Dirani as they crossed the start/finish line.
Settling down and lapping at a vastly improved pace to that of qualifying, Steven set about re-taking the position from Dirani. But on lap 7, he was forced to take avoiding action when James Walker spun at the Club Chicane. With the P1 Motorsport run driver having already taken Walker, Kane was thus elevated to 8th place, where he stayed to the flag, and just a few car lengths behind Dirani. Both drivers however were pleased that the performance of their cars had improved from the previous day.
“Overall the balance was fine but the speed of the front few cars on the straights was beyond us,” said Kane. “I had a good battle with Dirani at the start and then just concentrated on some consistent quick laps. We’ll make more changes for the second race and hopefully pick up more points.”
For Dirani, it was yet another frustrating race, although the Brazilian showed signs that both his and the cars early season performance will get back on track soon. The ‘Paulista’ took some solace from realising that American; Charlie Kimball had at least taken some points away from those in front of him in the title race.
“It was really hard out there because we were not competitive on the straights,” he said. “The car is as great as ever in the corners but we could not live with anyone once we came out of them.”
Starting from pole position in the National class, Charlie Hollings lost positions at the start of the race when he was crowded out at the Campbell/Cobb complex. “I made a good initial start but then it seemed to bog down slightly,” said the Promatecme UK driver. “That put me down in 5th, but from there I passed Fisher and Kennard, although JK got me back immediately. It was good clean racing which was fun but I wanted to get to the front as I knew I was faster than all of them.”
The lap times certainly bore that out as the Lola-Dome set a succession of fastest laps, peaking with a 1m08.649s, which was good enough for an extra point.
When Salvador Duran retired on lap 13, Charlie was elevated to 3rd place but was pressuring Kennard up Woodham Hill on the last lap. Selling the ADR Dallara driver a dummy, reminiscent of the famous Mansell/Piquet battle at Silverstone in 1987, Charlie looked first to the outside and then to the inside, drawing level with Kennard, only to lose out by just 0.153s as they crossed the line.
Race 2 saw more spectacular action, but for Danilo Dirani it was of the wrong kind as they poured in to the Club chicane for the first time.
“Bruno (Senna) just lost control on the brakes and hit the back of me, taking off my rear wing,” said DD. “It is just one of those things that happens. He is inexperienced and is learning F3 so I am not bitter; I was just in the wrong place at that time. I now just have to look ahead to Castle Combe next month and keep focused.”
Senna, the nephew of three time World Champion and motor racing icon, Ayrton Senna, has been a close friend of his fellow Brazilian since childhood and was mortified about the incident, immediately apologising to Danilo, who gallantly accepted the situation.
With the removal of both cars, as well as those of Alvaro Parente and Tim Bridgeman, who also tangled at the chicane, Steven Kane found himself in 8th position. Once again he was hot on the heels of James Walker’s Fortec Dallara, and the Northern Irishman made a spectacular move on the Jerseyman at Church on lap 12.
In a hard fought 7th place, Kane then hunted down the other Fortec car of Mike Conway, who on the penultimate lap ran over the last chicane in an attempt to wrest 5th from Dan Clarke This enabled Steven to latch on to the back of Clarke, but he was just unable to take the RR Dallara driver as they crossed the line. Later, Conway was indeed penalised for his manoeuvre by 3 seconds and was classified in 6th place just ahead of Kane.
“It was entertaining stuff out there in the second race,” said Kane. “There were people flying off the track left, right and centre which was great for me, considering my grid position. The car was a lot better for this race and I could actually live with people on the straights.”
Charlie Hollings scored another podium finish, his fourth in succession as he brought the Promatecme Lola-Dome in to 2nd place. Coming away from the weekend with a total points haul of 28, Charlie is now in 3rd place, just a point behind Salvador Duran in the national class.
“I don’t particularly enjoy Thruxton, so to come away with some good solid points is OK,” said the 23 year old.” What settled race two was the fact that Barton Mawer had a few Championship cars between us and this enabled him to get away. But now we have to catch him because he has a big lead (43 points). I feel confident we can chip away at that, starting at Castle Combe where we know the car is quick after Danny Watts’ win there last season.”
The 2005 British Formula Three International series now takes a break before reconvening in Wiltshire at Castle Combe on 25/26 June. Before that however is the prestigious Marlboro Masters International race at the famous Zandvoort circuit in Holland on June 11/12. Steven Kane and Dutch racer, Ferdinand Kool, as part of the official Marlboro team, will take his tenacious racecraft on to the continent once again, racing against the cream of Europe’s F3 drivers.
