Lola’s Formula Three teams were in the thick of the action during the latest rounds of the 2005 British Formula Three International championship at Caste Combe yesterday.

Represented by two cars each in the championship and national classes, Lola drivers left the Wiltshire track with a clutch of points finishes.

Danilo Dirani put difficult qualifying sessions behind him to score valuable championship points with 7th and 5th places respectively. The Brazilian despatched several cars on his charge through the field in his P1 Motorsport entered Lola B05/30 Mugen-Honda.

Dirani, who led the championship earlier in the season, is aching to get back in to the winners circle as soon as possible but felt that after difficulties in qualifying he had reaped the maximum possible result.

“We were suffering from a lack of speed on the straights during qualifying and that set us back throughout the weekend,” said the 24 year old. “I managed to pass a few cars in both races but overall I am disappointed that we could not challenge for victory here.”

Promatecme’s Steven Kane was hoping for some good luck after a spate of misfortune had culminated in an accident at the Marlboro Masters race at Zandvoort two weeks previously. Battered and bruised after that, Steven started the weekend well with a promising 2nd fastest in the free practice on Saturday morning.

However, halfway through the first qualifying session Steven suffered another accident when he spun at the fast Tower right-hander and hit the abandoned Dallara of Danish driver Christian Bakkerud. The impact launched Steven on to the top of the tyre barrier before bouncing back on to the grass.

“I made a mistake on a slippery track and that was exacerbated by Bakkerud’s car when I hit it and took off,” said the Ulsterman. “In hindsight the session should have been stopped as Bakkerud’s car wasn’t far from the track and in a dangerous position. We were quick this morning but went the wrong way on set up for first qualifying. It is really frustrating because we are quick but at the moment we are not able to show it.”

Steven finished a fighting 10th in the first race, making up three places and chasing the championship points leader Marko Asmer until the race was red flagged with 6 laps remaining.

Race 2 saw Kane suffer more misfortune when his battery went flat just before the cars were due to go on to the grid and he was forced to start from the pitlane. After scything through the tail enders, Steven’s progress was halted by fellow Lola runner Ben Clucas who mistakenly believed that Kane was another national class runner. However, that proved to be relatively immaterial as just like race one, the action came to a premature conclusion as the red flag was again deployed on lap 20 when Thruxton winner Charlie Kimball crashed following a puncture on the start/finish straight.

Charlie Hollings was again in great form at Castle Combe, grabbing another pole position for race two and lining up 2nd for the first 25-lap race in his Neil Brown prepared Mugen-Honda engined car. Lying 3rd in the points race, the Promatecme Lola-Dome driver knew that this was a good start to his weekend, especially as he  out qualified national class leader Barton Mawer in both races.

Sadly, race one started with an incident for Charlie, when he ran wide approaching the first corner (Quarry) and was forced on to the grass, inadvertently hitting Mawer as he regained the track. This necessitated a trip to the pits for a replacement nosecone and effectively put the Yorkshireman out of contention.

“The start of race one was messy as there seemed to be a lot of people in front of me who crept forward and seemed to be a little too keen before the lights went green,” said Hollings. “Then at Quarry I got on to the grass and couldn’t stop, hitting Barton, which I am sorry for. In race two I just lost out at the start and then tried to reel Barton in, but championship class cars got in-between us and it was difficult to make an attack before the race was stopped. 2nd place isn’t so bad but the fact that Barton gained more points means that he now has a big points lead.”

With 15 points for 2nd place in race two, Charlie is still in contention in the national class and  lies 3rd in class, just 13 points off 2nd placed driver, Salvador Duran, who took maximum points in the first encounter.

Ben Clucas had a fine F3 debut at Castle Combe this weekend, scoring 4th and 5th places finishes. The Reading born driver showed that he has a good future in F3 with competitive drives in both races despite having just one day of testing.

“I am reasonably pleased as we ticked off all the objectives we set ourselves for this weekend,” said Clucas. “I will get more confidence at Monza which is a track I know from my time in Formula Renault, so there I hope to be on the podium there, which really I should have been in the first race here.”

Clucas was in 3rd place when the safety car came out during the first race, only to lose out on the re-start in his Fluid Motorsport Developments entered Lola-Dome.

The Monza races take place on July 9/10, with an extra round scheduled to take place on the Saturday, replacing the weather affected Spa race which was due to be run in April.

RACE RESULTS

RACE 1

Pos /  Driver  / Make-Engine  / Time

 1.  Dan Clarke            Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     21:28.508 2.  Alvaro Parente        Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     +  2.063 3.  Charlie Kimball       Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     +  2.551 4.  Ryan Lewis            Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     +   3.424 5.  Danny Watts           Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     +  6.744 6.  Mike Conway           Dallara Opel Spiess          +   7.257 7.  Danilo Dirani         Lola B05/30 Mugen Honda      +  7.649 8.  Christian Bakkerud    Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     +  10.626 9.  Marko Asmer           Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     + 11.01110.  Steven Kane           LolaB 05/30 Mugen-Honda      +  11.34211.  Tim Bridgman          Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     +  11.79212.  Bruno Senna           Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     + 12.88213.  Ronayne O'mahony      Dallara F305 Opel Spiess     + 15.67914.  Stephen Jelley        Dallara F305 Opel Spiess     +  16.54015.  Salvador Duran        Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda     +  17.58416.  Josh Fisher           Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda     + 18.86617.  Jonathan Kennard      Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda     + 20.68618.  Ben Clucas            Lola-Dome F106/4 Mugen-Honda + 21.33319.  James Walker          Dallara F305 Opel Spiess     +  21.80220.  Barton Mawer          Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda     +  22.11121.  Juho Annala           Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda     +  26.15522.  Keiko Ihara           Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     + 26.72423.  Ricardo Teixeira      Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda     + 31.05624.  Charlie Hollings      Lola-Dome F106/4Mugen Honda  +  3 LapsNOCLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

Lou Meng  Dallara F304Mugen-Honda    

Adam Khan        Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda    

Nick Jones       Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda     1FASTEST LAPS:Championship:  Dan Clarke (Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda) 59.387National:      Barton Mawer (Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda) 1:00.387RACE 2 1. Alvaro Parente     Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     24:42.030 2.  Danny Watts         Dallara F305Mugen-Honda     +  4.031 3.  Dan Clarke          Dallara F305Mugen-Honda     +  4.550 4.  Marko Asmer         Dallara F305Mugen-Honda     +  7.977 5.  Danilo Dirani       Lola B05/30 Mugen Honda     +   9.439 6.  Christian Bakkerud  DallaraF305 Mugen-Honda     + 14.959 7.  Mike Conway         Dallara Opel Spiess         +  16.094 8.  James Walker        Dallara F305 Opel Spiess    +  16.407 9.  Stephen Jelley      Dallara F305 OpelSpiess     + 16.76510.  Bruno Senna         Dallara F305Mugen-Honda     + 19.16211.  Barton Mawer        Dallara F304Mugen-Honda     +  19.53112.  Charlie Hollings    Lola-DomeF106/4 Mugen Honda +  20.81913.  Jonathan Kennard    Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda    + 21.50514.  Ronayne O'mahony    Dallara F305 Opel Spiess    +  22.02515.  Salvador Duran      Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda    +  24.15316.  Ben Clucas          Lola-Dome F106/4 Mugen-Honda + 24.65917.  Steven Kane         Lola B05/30Mugen-Honda      + 24.94218.  Juho Annala         Dallara F304Mugen-Honda     + 26.89419.  Josh Fisher         Dallara F304Mugen-Honda     + 27.11320.  Keiko Ihara         Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda    + 29.71521.  Ricardo Teixeira    Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda    +  35.166NOTCLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:Charlie Kimball     Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     Nick Jones          Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda     Ryan Lewis          Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda     Tim Bridgman        Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda      Adam Khan           Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda       FASTEST LAP:Championship:  Charlie Kimball (Dallara F305 Mugen-Honda) 59.897National:      Josh Fisher (Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda)   1:01.375