| Magro wins City of Darwin Cup as title rivals collide |
| Story
By: Richard Craill Date: 17/6/2012 at 6:55:35 PM |
|
|
|
JOHN MAGRO has benefited from a penultimate lap and highly controversial collision between this years’ title contenders to sweep through and win a thrilling City of Darwin F3 SuperPrix, today at Hidden Valley Raceway.
The Queenslander had earlier won race two, but was running third in the closing stages of the 14-lap feature race later this afternoon as leader James Winslow and rival Chris Gilmour battled for the lead.
Gilmour had a run on Winslow down Hidden Valley’s 1.1km main straight, and took advantage of an almostDallara-sized hole that seemed to appear on the inside at turn one – but whatever space there was closed in rapidly and the pair made side-by-side contact.
Winslow was forced off the track and whilst Gilmour assumed the lead briefly, a charging Magro moving past the damaged #1 car a few corners later to take a surprise win.
Gilmour finished second with damaged steering and Steel Guiliana an excellent third.
With badly damaged rear suspension on the left-rear corner of his R-Tek Dallara, Winslow limped to a distinctly unimpressed fifth place and was seething post race.
Gilmour was unrepentant. Magro was punching the air in delight as he crossed the line – and for much of the cool-down lap.
Race officials are investigating the contact between Winslow and Gilmour, with results provisional until confirmed. But one thing that won’t change is Magro’s win.
It was his third career victory and first ‘feature’ race victory of his F3 career – and it came in the series’ biggest race of the year.
It also gave Adelaide-based Team BRM back-to-back City of Darwin Cup titles; the team having won last year with Kristian Lindbom.
“It’s about time, it has taken a long time to put this together but today has just been amazing,” Magro beamed, having been presented his trophy by 1980 Formula 1 World Champion, Alan Jones.
“I spent the early part of my race conserving my tyres and looking after the car because I had a feeling that those two (Winslow and Gilmour) would do something. It was all pretty aggressive so I just sat back.
“When I saw them come together I thought ‘you beauty’ and was able to get past. I knew it would happen.
“It’s a brilliant weekend and a brilliant event. We love coming to Darwin and I love it even more after this!”
Reigning Australian Formula Ford Champion Cameron Waters impressed on his F3 debut, finishing fourth in today’s feature and third in the earlier sprint race held Sunday morning.
Lockie Marshall made a stunning debut Formula 3 performance this weekend, taking out the honours in the Forpark Australia F3 National Class competition in his Dallara – Renault.
He led home a resurgent Ben Gersekowski in the feature race; however Hayden Cooper continues to lead the class battle over his Queensland teammate from BF Racing.
Chris Gilmour set a new Formula 3 Hidden Valley lap record, the new benchmark standing at 1m06.0091s.
This weekend’s results have closed the margin between the leaders at the top of the Gold Star championship table, Winslow leaving Darwin with a reduced 32-point margin over Gilmour. Magro moves to third in the championship, with 88 points.
The next round of the Formula 3 Australian Driver’s Championship will be held with the Shannons Nationals, at the newly-named Sydney Motorsport Park, on July 13-15.
Updated: June 19th, 2012
THE RACE THREE incident between Chris Gilmour and James Winslow at Hidden Valley Raceway was judged a racing incident by CAMS stewards of the meeting.
The clash between the then-race leaders saw contact made between the two cars at turn one. A formal protest was lodged post-race by James Winslow and the R-Tek team, which was turned down thereafter.
No penalties were applied and as such the race results and championship standings do not change.
|
|
| |
|
|
