Strong Showing at Shenington for 3DR!

Tuesday, 22 July 2008 16:11

After time out during the summer for the team to take stock of the first half of the season, 3DR returned to Shenington for round 7 of the club championship with Senior driver Dominic Russell. Danny was also looking forward to being able to test on the Saturday, ahead of his much awaited return to racing in 5 weeks time.

Saturday morning saw a dry but windy start to the day...which set the scene for the rest of the weekend. Emphasis was on Dominic this weekend, as he is running 4th in the series’, with a chance of winning outright by the end of the season. The test programme worked through involved testing all 5 of the team’s best senior engines’ ahead of the last half of the season. Both drivers proved to be an invaluable asset to the team, giving critical feedback on the equipment.

By the end of Saturday, Danny ended up fastest on track by 2 tenths, with Dominic lapping in a tightly packed group of frontrunners, all of whom are involved in the championship.

‘The stage is set for a good race tomorrow. Obviously i feel that we can come out on top, as we managed in the previous round of the championship. A big thank you must go top both drivers today, for giving good feedback about the teams equipment.’ Team Manager, Tom Smith.

All 3 heats on Sunday turned out to be rather unsuccessful for Dominic. The obvious lack of some drivers’ talent contributed to an off-track moment in all 3 heats, the worst of which involved a battle for 3rd place in heat 1 with an inexperienced driver. Dominic ended up with an 18th, 10th, and 6th place in the heats respectively.

‘After a good test yesterday, today has been frustrating. I was hopeful of lining up on the top 2 rows for the final and getting away at the start. Coming from grid 17 will be hard work. We have a fast kart; I have confidence in myself, so I am not ruling anything out yet! Being realistic, though, I will probably have to consolidate here this weekend to score a good load of points for the championship.’ Team Driver, Dominic Russell.

As the final race of the day approached, the grid formed. Dominic’s championship rivals had mainly had good days, so it would be critical to move up the field in the race. A good start saw Dom miss the usual first corner incident, and slot into 12th behind a snake of drivers. Good manoeuvres in both hairpins on the opening lap saw Dominic up and into 8th place by half way through lap 2. A move on European championship contender Ben Eden saw Dominic move into 7th place and into contention for the victory.

As lap 6 was started, a rather over the top move from Eden push Dominic back down the field to 9th. It was unhelpful to both him and us, as the two drivers were making headway into the leading group of 6 karts. A focused Dominic regrouped, passing Eden back for 7th 2 laps later. By lap 10, Dom moved past Barnes and Fulford for 5th position. However, by lap 12 the field had spread out, and, although Dominic posted the fastest lap of the race along with race winner, Nathan Lawley, it was not enough to move any further up the field than 4th.

‘If Eden had worked with me through the middle sector of the race, then we would have won. I am very disappointed that he didn’t use his head,’ commented Dominic after the race. ‘The kart was good, and I feel that we made very good progress. The race was exciting! I came in under 1 second from the win, showing the pace that we had starting from so far back.’

Dominic has moved into 2nd place in the series’, just 11 points behind championship leader Lawley on dropped rounds. The team go to Whilton Mill next weekend with Dominic, who again is in contention for the championship, and Junior protégé Will Blackwell-chambers.