| Strong Showing for 3DR at Shenington! |
| Friday, 22 August 2008 18:07 |
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3DR Motorsport travelled to Shenington for Round 8 of the club championship last weekend. With Danny only 7 days away from his return to racing at Whilton, he was in action on Saturday along with Dominic Russell in Senior Rotax, and Henry Jackson in Minimax.
The weather managed to hold off all weekend, and the team worked hard with Henry in only his 2nd outing with the team. ‘With the next Stars of Tomorrow round here in under a months’ time, Minimax is a heavily populated class this weekend. Some of the country’s top competitors are in action, and so Henry will have to work extremely hard to turn the weekend into a result. He doesn’t have a lot of experience compared to the guys that he will be racing, but we will work hard and try our very best to achieve a good result for him this weekend in front of 2 potential sponsors,’ commented Tom Smith, Team Manager. Within 2 sessions on Saturday a good balance was found with Henrys kart, and some setup work trying to optimise power was proved to be successful, whilst driver coach Danny Russell worked on Henry’s performance. Henry ended up around 3 tenths from the pace on a lap, a massive improvement from previous rounds of the championship, especially considering the high level of competition. Danny and Dominic utilised Saturday to run through a programme of tyre tests for the race day. Danny also had the pleasure of running in 2 fresh engines in time for the following weekend. Danny ended up 3 tenths ahead of the field on Saturday, with Dominic lapping second fastest alongside Pro-Tec driver Scott Hutchins. Sundays’ qualifying heats saw a disastrous start to the teams’ day. Henry made two mistakes in his first two heats from top 3 positions, and had to recover to 7th and 8th respectively. With a 13th from his 3rd heat, he would line up on grid 9 for the hotly contested final. Dominic was suffering from a lack of awareness from other competitors and was taken out in his first two heats from 5th and 6th, but managed to win the 3rd heat. Grid 11 was going to make things difficult in the 12 lap final. Henrys final saw a frenetic start, allowing the front 4 drivers to break away in the opening 2 laps. A long train of the country’s best drivers formed with Henry in 11th place after lap 3. Henrys usual championship rivals were languishing in around 16th-20th position, as he battled hard with British championship frontrunner Ashley Hand. With nothing between the top 12 drivers in lap times, the race proved difficult, and Henry finished in 11th position, just 6 seconds from the eventual winner. Impressive pace unfortunately could not claw back the disadvantage of the qualifying heats. A similar story ensued with Dominic’s race. He managed to slot into 9th on lap 1, quickly moving through the front runners up into 4th position by only lap 6. Despite working with experience ex-British championship driver Shaun Fulford to claw back the advantage that Lawley and Hughes had built up at the front, he fell just short of the final step of the podium, despite clinching the equal fastest lap of the race. ‘A lot of positives have to be taken from the weekend for both drivers, and it was a shame that qualifying didn’t go our way today. Henry was only 1 tenth of a second from the fastest lap in the final today, and in a battle for 5th. This is a massive improvement from lapping around 1 second a lap from the pace in the previous 3 months championship finals. Dominic has scored another good set of points for the championship, although nothing less than a win is a result for the team here. Whilton Mill will be exciting for the team next weekend, with our collaboration with KKC starting, and 4 drivers looking for victory in the awning. Overall I am happy that a good job has been done by all this weekend.’ Team Principle, Don Russell The team travel to Whilton Mill next weekend for the start of their partnership with major component supplier KKC, looking for victory in Junior, Senior and 177 Rotax. |
