The Promatecme run Lola-Dome of Danny Watts heads to Thruxton this bank holiday weekend eager to follow up on the excellent 3rd placed at Silverstone two weeks ago. After finishing just behind title protagonists Nelsinho Piquet and James Rossitter, Watts is again keen to ‘mix it’ with the leading Dallaras and score ‘big points’ in order to challenge for 4th position in the championship.
“I have been looking forward to this meeting for a long time,” said BRDC backed Watts after today’s official testing at the Hampshire track. “The circuit should suit the car due to the high-speed nature, although we are at a slight disadvantage because unlike the Dallaras we do not have any previous data from Thruxton. However, I was fast here last year and took pole before leading until being taken out, so it bodes well for another good run for me and the car.”
Testing was conducted in wet conditions and as a result did not point to any conclusive proof of how things will transpire this weekend. With dry conditions forecast for Sunday and Monday, the sole Neil Brown prepared Mugen-Honda powered Lola-Dome will be once more be hoping to challenge the field of Dallaras and repeat the victory at Castle Combe in June, when Danny became the first non-Dallara driver to win in British F3 for 11 years.
The Promatecme F3 team have a good record at Thruxton with wins for Nicolas Minassian and Enrique Bernoldi in 1997 and 98 respectively. Bruce Jouanny, who now acts as driver coach to Promatecme’s scholarship runner – Vasilije Calasan, also took a fine 2nd at Thruxton with Chris Weller’s team in 2002.
Partners to the Promatecme Lola-Dome package are Embassy Racing who have become an integral part of the team in the second half of this season. The British GT team recently announced that they will spearhead a new Radio station that will be broadcast at all the remaining rounds of the British GT series on 1602 MW. They will have former F3 race winner Ben Collins joining regular driver Neil Cunningham at Thruxton this weekend.
Also supporting the Lola-Dome cause this weekend is the Optim Group who specialise in contract cleaning and security.
As well as focusing on taking Danny Watts to more victories in the remaining rounds of this years Avon Tyres British Formula Three Championship, Lola engineers are also hard at work designing next years chassis, which is set to be even better than the ground breaking F106/03 design. The new car will further build upon the success that has not only garnered victory in the British series, but also in Italy and Japan where it has stirred up the results between the normally all-Dallara grids.
The action at Thruxton kicks off on Sunday afternoon with two 25 minute qualifying sessions. Both races take place on Monday and are scheduled to start at 11.21 and 14.27.
