Conway Leaps Ahead as Teams Head to Belgium
With the 2006 Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series season approaching the half way point, Raikkonen Robertson Racing’s Mike Conway, from Sevenoaks in Kent, holds a commanding lead for this year’s title as the teams head to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium for Rounds 11 & 12. In 2005, the British F3 races at the Ardennes circuit had to be called off due to adverse weather conditions following qualifying, but the weather forecast this year is looking good – if rather hot.
Mike Conway scored a double win in Rounds 9 & 10 at Snetterton in Norfolk, opening up a 40-point championship lead over his nearest rival, Carlin Motorsport’s Oliver Jarvis (Burwell, Cambridgeshire), who finished fourth and second. Raikkonen Robertson Racing’s Bruno Senna is now third, 46 points behind Conway, after a massive accident in round 9, which left the Brazilian unharmed, but with his car a twisted wreck Senna was unable to take any further part in the weekend’s racing.
"It should be good. We’re going to Spa with a 40-point lead, so my aim is to keep that and maybe extend it if possible,” said Mike Conway. “Last year, Spa was OK for me. I didn’t qualify that well, as it was quite tricky with the wet conditions and then dry. But I think it should be good this year, we've got a strong package, so I’m looking forward to it.”
“I think the racing will be close because you get awesome tows down the long straights,” Conway continued. “If a couple of you can break away, you're going to be fighting the whole way. I've raced at Spa in a Formula Ford in the Avon Junior Cup and I actually won there, so that was good. It was really wet that weekend. It would be nice if it is dry, because I haven't actually been round (in an F3 car) apart from that half an hour qualifying we had.”
The third Raikkonen Robertson Racing Dallara Mercedes is in the hands of Leicester’s Stephen Jelley, who will be looking for that elusive first win on the 4.36-mile Ardennes circuit, being one of the few drivers who has raced there, albeit briefly, in British F3. "I raced at Spa in 2004 in the Scholarship class and I had a bit of a dodgy qualifying, I had a big accident and I qualified towards the back,” said Stephen Jelley. “Then I did a whole lap got round to La Source and got taken out. I'm looking forward to going there this year, there are lots of places to overtake, you can get a good tow and you can run low downforce. I've shown at every race so far that I've got the pace to win and when I crack qualifying, that’s going to be it. If you qualify on the front row, a good start can make your life very easy. I'm confident that I can do that at any circuit given the right circumstances."
Hitech Racing’s James Walker (Jersey) and James Jakes (Yorkshire) scored a double podium for the team at Snetterton and travel to Belgium confident of a good weekend if Lady Luck is kind to them. Hitech’s third driver Salvador Duran will be looking forward to putting a disappointing weekend at Snetterton behind him, after the Mexican was involved in the accident which left Bruno Senna sidelined in race 1, followed by an incident with Alberto Valerio in race 2.
"Obviously coming off a good podium at Snetterton, we really need to start scoring those type of points at every race,” said James Walker. “I think we can go to Spa and get two podiums. Circuit knowledge is going to help after racing there in 2004. I qualified 6th last year ahead of Mike (Conway), if you can get a good start from the front or first couple of rows you can race for the podium. That's what I need to aim for at the minute, two podium finishes to get me back up the championship table. From a spectator point of view the weekend is going to be fantastic, obviously the 24-hour race is quite unique but to be fair our races are going to be good, with lots of overtaking around Spa - it doesn't get much better."
Fortec Motorsport’s Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands) has been a consistent points scorer in his first season of British F3 and has shown that given the right circumstance he is capable of challenging for the lead. His British teammate Stuart Hall (Bishop Stortford) has suffered from more than his fair share of bad luck in 2006 and hasn’t yet shown the flashes of brilliance that he had with the team in Formula Renault. However the 21 year old from Essex is confident that his time will come and is looking forward to his first run at Spa.
"I'm really looking forward to my first time at Spa,” said Stuart Hall. “It's one of the major circuits in the world, everyone’s raced there and I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with it. I did a track day a few weeks ago in a hire car and it gave me some insight into where the track goes, but it was in a Mercedes A Class and in that you had to drop down two gears to get to the top of Eau Rouge, so it wasn't the fastest thing in the world. But at least it showed me where it went, which was good."
For Alberto Valerio and his Brazilian Cesario F3 team, every track on the Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series calendar is a new experience, but the 2005 South American F3 Champion is steadily gaining experience and, more importantly, championship points in his team’s debut year. "We hope to go a little better than we did at Snetterton where we only got points in one race,” said Alberto Valerio. “Spa is going to be a new experience for me, which I hope to enjoy because everyone has only told me good things about the track. I'll be looking to get a good setup, qualify well and get more championship points for me, for the team and for Brazil. It's a dream to race at Spa, I've seen it in F1 on TV but let's see it in real life."
In the National Class, Rodolfo Gonzalez still has a commanding 51-point lead over Cristiano Morgado but his main rivals are starting to close the gap on the track to the flying Venezuelan. Gonzalez suffered only his second defeat in ten starts in the second race at Snetterton, when he and Morgado slid off the track in separate incidents, gifting the lead to Juho Annala, with the Finn holding off a resurgent Morgado until the chequered flag to take his second class win of 2006.
The Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series races will take place on Friday 28th July at 14:45 and on Saturday 29th July at 08:55. The weekend features the FIA GT Proximus 24 Hours of Spa, which starts at 16:00 on Saturday 29th July. Other races include the FIA GT3 European Championship, Trofeo Audemars Piguet Maserati Europa, and the World Series by Renault 3.5.
