Max Chilton had a disappointing time in the latest rounds of the British F3 International Series, failing to record a finish in either of the races through no fault of his own.

The Championship’s visit to Croft in Yorkshire was another new venue for Max and he was looking forward to racing there, but after having his car damaged in the first race and a broken gear linkage forcing his retirement in the second, he left Croft without having a chance to compete as he had hoped for.

Throughout the practice sessions on Friday and qualifying on Saturday, Max improved his pace and was happy with the handling and set up on his Lego Batman sponsored Dallara. He ended up 17th on the grid for both of the races, but with lap times so incredibly close amongst the 29 car field, the races could have brought good results for him. Being Max’s first event at Croft he was finding over half a second with each session and that level of improvement, if he could continue it, would have put him in the top ten.

Things didn’t go Max’s way though. Having made a good start in the first race, he managed to avoid the usual first corner dramas and was challenging the Spa race winner, Jonathan Kennard, for 15th place when, as they approached the final corner, Max saw an opportunity and dived down the inside of Kennard to take the place. In a misjudged move, Kennard tried to shut the door way too late and drove straight into the side of Max’s car, launching himself over Max’s rear wheel and into retirement. Max also couldn’t continue as the impact had destroyed his rear corner and he limped back into the pits, out of the race.

As the Arena Motorsport team inspected the damage it was clear the condition of the car was worse than it originally appeared and they set about effecting repairs to try and get max out for the second race.

It would be a battle against the clock as there were only a couple of hours between the races and the team had to replace the whole of the rear suspension, gearbox, driveshaft and bits of bodywork. The whole Arena team worked flat out and even Max himself got involved, helping to fix the car. With just minutes to spare they had done it. The car was a runner and Max could take his place on the grid.

Another good start and a strong couple of opening laps saw Max lift himself to 14th place, but his progress would not last. Halfway around the 4th lap Max pulled off the track with an obvious mechanical problem and for the second time that day had to retire from the race. The team as well as Max were gutted. After such an enormous effort to get the car ready, everybody was extremely deflated. The problem was a broken gear linkage which was almost certainly damaged in the first race accident, but had not been apparent when the team inspected the car during the repairs. An obviously disappointed Max was quick to defend the efforts of the team and praise their work;

“It is a real shame for everybody involved. I’ve never seen a team work so hard to get the car ready and I was amazed that I was there sitting on the grid for the second race. The gear linkage looked alright and the team had started the car and ran up and down through the gears before they let me out, but obviously it had been damaged and in the race I was stuck in 4th gear. It’s been a really disappointing weekend from a racing point of view, but the test sessions were useful, the car set up and my laps improved all the time and I’ve learnt the track so it’s not all wasted.”

There is now just one meeting remaining in the F3 Championship, the final two races at Rockingham on the 30th September. Even though it’s a slightly modified circuit layout, Max has raced at Rockingham before, winning there in T Cars last season and he will be hoping to get his best result in F3 to finish this season on a high.