| Solid Start to 2009 Campaign for the Team! |
| Thursday, 30 April 2009 18:08 |
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3DR have made a solid start to their 2009 assault on the British Championships. An entry of 2 Juniors, 2 Seniors and a 177 sees the team embark on their busiest season at the top flight level yet. Rounds 1 & 2 were held at Whilton Mill and Rowrah respectively throughout April.
The Junior pairing of Jackson and Whitaker, both in their 1st year of national level competition, have excelled and put in massive effort to ensure that they set up a platform for results to flow in the remaining 4 rounds of the season. Good pace at both events has culminated in 3 top 15 finishes out of 4 races for Jackson, his best result 9th last weekend in the main final at Rowrah. Whitaker has also shown front running pace, but with luck not on his side at Whilton Mill, he had to settle for 7th place in the repecharge. Making the main finals at Rowrah, inexperience got the better of the Bishops Stortford youngster, but valuable experience was gained in both finals. The Russell brothers, the teams Senior Rotax team have shown maturity throughout the first 2 rounds of the championship. With differences in the control tyres at Round 1, both were faced with a tough challenge to score a good points tally. Involved in a first corner incident in both finals, Danny had to make do with 15th twice, Dominic recovering from a lowly 23rd place in final 1 to take 11th in the main final. More crashing was the order of the day at Rowrah, with the highlight being 3rd in group in timed practice for Danny, and 7th place in the main final from grid 19, with the 2nd fastest lap. Mach, the teams 177 driver, has been consistent throughout testing at both rounds. Inconsistent tyres cost him a good result at Whilton, but steady 9th and 10th place finishes respectively made the best of a bad job. With good pace at Rowrah, 7th in final 1 was followed by an excellent start in final 2, only to be taken out on lap 9 from 5th position. Being caught up in a lot of incidents, the team have, on the whole, made the most of the first 2 rounds. With 4 drivers in seeded number positions out of the 5 (Mach 10th, Russell 11th, Russell 14th, Jackson 11th), and an entry list in junior and Senior topping 50 drivers, a satisfactory start to the season has been had by all. ‘The team have shown very good pace and have worked together well early on this season. Results have not gone our way, but we have formed a close – knit environment within the team, and the guys have never let their heads drop. As a result, we have come out of a difficult start to the season in a relatively strong position.I see no reason why we cannot move forward from here, and go on to feature right at the front of the competition in all 3 classes by the end of the year,’ Team Manager, Tom Smith. 3DR now concentrate on club racing until mid June, when the S1 national championship heads to Buckmore Park for round 3. |
