| DARWIN RUNDOWN: Facts & Stats following Hidden Valley |
| Story
By: Richard Craill Date: 21/6/2012 at 1:20:50 PM |
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HIDDEN VALLEY, as it did in 2011, proved a turning point in the fortunes of those chasing the 2012 Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship – and provided some of the feistiest racing seen this season.
The long straight and technical twists and turns of the Top End track once again offered up plenty of drama, some controversy and an ecstatic winner in John Magro, who finally got the proverbial monkey off his back to break through for his first F3 major.
He had won sprint races before, but his win in the City of Darwin Cup was the first time he had nabbed the big trophy in a weekend.
Here’s a look at some of the interesting facts and stats that have emerged at the half-way point of the 2012 championship.
• Hidden Valley marked the second time in two rounds that Chris Gilmour left the circuit with a new lap record to his credit. After his well publicised Bathurst lap, Gilmour also now holds the Hidden Valley F3 lap record, at 1m06.0091s.
Lap records have been set at three of the four rounds so far this season, with Eastern Creek’s one-year old benchmark the next target. James Winslow currently holds the record there (1m23.1737s), but the circuit has been slightly modified since then, the turn-six changes expected to shave a few tenths off that mark should conditions provide.
• By finishing second, Gilmour also scored his 49th championship podium finish – just one away from the half-century mark. Gilmour leads the all-time podium standings, Tim Macrow the next best on 46, whilst James Winslow is catching both with 36 – from a staggering 58 starts! That equates to one podium every 1.6 races, or a top three finish in 62% of all his races.
• Gilmour made his 130th championship F3 race start in Race two.
• As a driver with that much experience, plus a championship title and 12 wins to his credit, you would expect Chris Gilmour to also be the king of Qualifying – but that is far from the case.
By taking pole at Hidden Valley, Gilmour snapped one of the longest streaks in Australian Motorsport, ending a drought that began in May, 2004 – the last time he took an F3 pole position.
That’s eight years and one month ago or 62 Rounds. 138 races. A long time!
It was just his third career F3 pole – but the second time he had converted a top spot in qualifying to a race victory.
• John Magro, however, is the Qualifying King of the last two seasons. Since the beginning of 2011 - when he purchased the ex-Ben Clucas Dallara F307 he currently races - the Queenslander hasn't qualified outside of the top three.
Magro has 6 pole positions from the 11 rounds held since March 2011, and eight front-row starts from 11 qualifying attempts.
He has qualified on the front row for every race this year, including scoring pole positions at Bathurst and Symmons Plains.
When he has missed out on pole, it is by an average margin of just 0.4s.
• In comparison, James Winslow has 10 pole positions – equal second of all time. Macrow comfortably leads that list with 17.
• Hidden Valley marked the first time in championship history that a car not built by Dallara finished on the podium in an Australian F3 race, when Cameron Waters finished third in the Mygale M-07 F3, in Race two.
• Cam Waters became the 61st driver to score a race podium in Australian F3 at the weekend.
• By winning two races at the weekend, Team BRM has now avoided the potential of having their equal worst-ever season, in terms of race wins. The team has won at least two races in each year (except 2003, when they failed to score) of the championship – but had only one to their credit (Jordan Skinner, Bathurst) prior to their weekend.
• It was the teams’ 78th championship race win. R-Tek Motorsport have quickly vaulted up the table to sit 4th on the teams win list, with 16, just behind Astuti Motorsport / Competition on 17, and Paul Stephenson’s eponymous outfit that won 17 races in 1999-2000.
• Two different drivers won races at the weekend – making it four different winners so far this year. The average number of different winners in a season is 4.7.
• Chris Gilmour scored his 1000th championship point at the weekend, firmly leading that statistical table with a total of 1006. Tim Macrow is second on 835, whilst James Winslow has now moved (rocketed, really) to third with 692. Winslow, however, averages a mighty 173 points per season; Gilmour 142 and Macrow 139.
• James needs just one more race win to take his 25th career race win.
• Winslow leads the fastest laps table with nearly double the number of his nearest rival (19, to Ben Barker and Chris Alajajian with 10 each). Chris Gilmour has set four fastest laps this year, for a total of 9 – equal with Mat Sofi and Ben Clucas for 4th place on the table.
• Across the first three rounds, Winslow equalled his own career best for race wins in a row (8), tied for third with himself. Only Paul Stephenson and Ben Clucas – with 11 each – have more wins in a single season than Winslow does this year. There are, however, 9 races remaining this year for James to beat that mark.
• Only one driver been able to win more than two Forpark Australia F3 National Class races in a row this season, showing up the competitive nature of the class. Hayden Cooper, Ben Gersekowski, Adrian Cottrell and Lockie Marshall have each tasted success this year.
• 17 drivers have scored points overall this year, already 35% more than last season (in total).
• The average starting field this year (10.5) is up more than 25% over last years’ full-season total of 8.2.
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