British racing driver, Nick Padmore, maintained his fine form by winning all three of his races at the annual Silverstone Classic last weekend. Racing the 1978 March 783 in the two Brian Henton Trophy For Classic Formula 3 races, Padmore secured pole position, the lap record and two dominant wins to complete the perfect weekend.
Image removed by sender.Click here for high resolution photo
Friday morning's qualifying session saw Reigate-based Padmore make the perfect start to his weekend by and put the car on pole position, over 1.6sec clear of Classic F3 regular Martin Stretton's 1983 Martini MK39.
In Race 1 on Saturday morning, Padmore put his sportscar experience to good use for the rolling start and pulled away right from the green light.
From then on he wasn't troubled and pulled a comfortable 5.1sec gap over Stretton, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 7, before cruising across the line after 10 laps.
Sunday morning's Race 2 saw Padmore even more dominant as he pulled off yet another lights-to-flag victory, smashing his own lap record that he had set the previous day by nearly 0.7sec, and drawing an 8.0sec lead over 2nd-placed Stretton.
Nick Padmore:"Wow! - what can I say; I can't believe it, what a weekend! I just love these cars and the car felt absolutely perfect so thank you and well done to the boys at WDK Motorsport. Also a big thank you to Max Smith-Hilliard for giving me this amazing opportunity to drive his car.
"And what an privilege to meet, and be presented with the winner's trophy, by Brian Henton. He's had a very successful career in both Formula 3 and later on in Formula One in the 70s and early 80s, and it's a great feeling to follow in his footsteps.
"It wasn't easy out there by any means and I really had to concentrate but I'm absolutely overjoyed with this weekend, it's been perfect. The Silverstone Classic is one of my favourite events and I've had so much support from friends and family; it's been quite overwhelming. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this and I hope to be back next year!"
HALL & PADMORE SEAL VICTORY IN MASTERS HISTORIC SPORTS CARS
To add to his already flawless weekend, Padmore joined forces with Phil Hall for their fourth attempt at the FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars race in Hall's 1971 Lola T212.
Having qualified 2nd in class, and 5th overall, Hall took the opening stint for Saturday evening's 50-minute spectacle.
Running solidly, Hall made an unscheduled pit stop before rejoining and then coming back in to hand the reigns over Padmore.
With Padmore rejoining the race in P15 overall and with only 22 minutes left on the clock, he wasted no time in making up for lost ground, and got the car up to P5 overall, which was more than enough to seal the class victory.
Nick Padmore:"This is a great result for Phil and myself - I thoroughly enjoyed that race. The car was spot on and Phil drove a great race; thank you to Phil and Complete Motorsport Solutions.
"After coming so close in previous years with P2's I'm delighted we went one better this weekend as we had planned to."
Full results from the Silverstone Classic, provided by MST World, are available at http://results.mstworld.com/Results/getPDF?eventid=14208&series=hsc.
DENIS WELCH
Despite another fantastic Silverstone Classic, the weekend was overshadowed by the loss of 69 year-old Denis Welch during the Jack Brabham Memorial Trophy for HGPCA Pre '66 Grand Prix Cars on Sunday afternoon.
Nick Padmore:"It's with great sadness that we learnt of the loss of Denis Welch at the Silverstone Classic on Sunday. I would like to join the rest of the racing community in saying our thoughts are with Denis' family and close friends as they try to come to terms with this unimaginable loss."
Click here for the Historic Racing News web site - designed and built by Racecar
