Double R Racing enjoyed success at home and abroad over the weekend, 21st/22nd June, with Andy Chang celebrating a double podium finish in the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Championship and Felipe Guimaraes making a welcome points return in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.At Snetterton 300 Circuit in the UK, Chang and team-mate Camren Kaminsky embarked on the third race meeting of the British F3 season with the Macanese driver taking a season-best runner-up spot in round nine on Sunday, having finished third in the earlier eighth round for the Woking squad.His American team-mate, meanwhile, book-ended an unfortunate non-finish in round eight – a race he had led impressively until three laps from the conclusion – with a brace of top four results. Chang ended the Snetterton weekend fourth in the championship standings with Kaminsky fifth.In Belgium at the renowned Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship reached the halfway point of its season with rounds 13, 14 and 15 delivering a hugely encouraging series of performances from Double R’s Guimaraes.While some horrendous misfortune did fall the Brazilian’s way in the second and third encounters, he delivered strong pace throughout the weekend and a top eight result in the first race on Saturday marked a richly deserved points scoring result for the category rookie.“It’s not been a bad weekend at all for the team in both championships, it’s great to see Andy back on the podium in British F3 and we’ve been given a real boost of confidence in the European series with Felipe’s excellent performances”, said team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt.“Camren really did deserve his first podium, the way he led race two at Snetterton was impressive and he deserved a better outcome from that race than he ultimately got. All in all, though, I’m very pleased with the hard work everyone has put in this weekend – there are a lot of positives.”Guimaraes enjoys boosted competitiveness at SpaDallara-Mercedes driver Guimaraes produced, by far, his best qualifying performance of the FIA F3 season on Friday, 20th June, at Spa with the rain-affected second run the most fruitful – the Brazilian taking seventh on the grid for round 14 and an improved top four start for round 15. Beginning Saturday’s opening encounter, round 13, from 14th on the grid, Guimaraes put together a truly remarkable opening lap to scythe his way through into the top six. Although unfortunately shuffled back to ninth on lap three, having lost momentum out of Eau Rouge after an attack by Antonio Fuoco, the Double R man hit back at the end of lap four to take eighth from Nicholas Latifi.After a see-saw battle over the next couple of tours, the Brazilian made the place his prior to the emergence of the Safety Car at the beginning of lap seven. Following the re-start, Guimaraes held station and then moved into seventh into Les Combes but was edged back to eighth on lap 13 – still a tremendous result from the seventh row of the grid.Beginning round 14 from seventh on the grid, hopes were high of a terrific result for the South American and after a strong start he remained in the fight for good points. At the Bus Stop chicane at the end of lap one, though, contact to Guimaraes’ left-rear wheel resulted in a puncture and a subsequent spin under braking for La Source prefaced a slow tour back to the pits for retirement.Determined to hit back in round 15 on Sunday, the Double R ace did slip back to seventh on the first lap but remained competitive and became embroiled in some very close see-saw battles despite issues with erratic downshift blip problems which made braking very difficult. On lap 11, though, contact from Felix Rosenqvist brought a disappointing and all too early conclusion to the race.More silverware in British F3 for Double RPromising young Macanese driver Andy Chang doubled his season’s podium tally with rostrum success at Snetterton in rounds eight and nine of the British F3 campaign on Sunday, having posted a sixth place finish in a challenging opening encounter on Saturday.Starting the first of Sunday’s two races from fifth place, Chang dropped to sixth initially but moved back into fifth on lap five before assuming fourth position on lap 11. He was then able to sweep into the podium placings three laps from the finish at the expense of a highly unfortunate Kaminsky.Racing to a season best-equalling fourth place in round 13, having risen through from sixth on the grid, the American almost achieved a dream result during the first of Sunday’s outings and certainly deserved a maiden podium at the very least.Lining-up second on the grid, Kaminsky grabbed the lead just a couple of corners into the race and despite serious pressure he calmly held on. Going into the final third of the encounter the F3 rookie continued to fend off his pursuers but on lap 16, with just under three laps remaining, contact while trying to keep Sam MacLeod at bay through Riches led to a bitterly disappointing retirement.In round nine, Kaminksy posted another fourth place finish to confirm his consistency although he was again a podium contender. Making a blistering start, leaping from fifth on the grid into second before the first corner, the Dallara-Mercedes driver was shuffled back to his starting position but contact on lap eight between Matt Rao and Martin Cao enabled Kaminsky to move up to third.Running behind team-mate Chang, who had been circulating in fourth place before the lap eight dramas which resulted in a Safety Car period, the Double R duo continued in that order but late on the recovering Rao was able to demote Kaminsky to fourth – although Chang was able to cling on to second for the best finish of his rookie year in F3.Double R Racing will be back in action next weekend, 28th/29th June, at the Norisring in Germany for the sixth event of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. The squad’s British F3 team has a five week break before the fourth event of its season on 25th/26th July at Spa-Francorchamps.Provisional 2014 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Championship Standings (after Rd9):4th Andy Chang, 87pts; 5th Camren Kaminsky, 72ptsProvisional 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship Standings (after Rd15):20th Felipe Guimaraes, 5pts
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