| Rookies adapt as champions pace fast Sydney Friday |
| Story
By: F3 Media Release Date: 13/7/2012 at 5:50:24 PM |
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A COUPLE OF Formula 3 rookies have enjoyed their first taste-test of the category and Sydney Motorsport Park’s sinuous 3.9-kilometer circuit today as Round 5 of the championship began under sunny skies today.
Jon Collins and Adam Gill both took their first laps in anger today and both performed admirably, each logging a pair of 30-minute practice sessions with relative ease as they transitioned to Australia’s quickest racing cars.
The pair comes from different backgrounds and each has different motivations behind their appearance this weekend – but at the end of the day their reactions were very similar.
“Wow,” was the general feeling both drivers echoed after practice today.
“It’s just the whole package, the way they brake, turn and go, it’s just fantastic,” Adam Gill – a former Karter turned Businessman – said.
“Once you get confidence that you can go flat through certain corners, and can brake where the cars are capable of stopping, it feels great.”
Whilst Gill, who has never driven a racing car competitively before today, eased his way in, Formula Ford graduate Jon Collins got within a half-second of the Darwin Forpark National class winner in the second session today, though it was also his first laps in the wings-and-slicks racers.
Collins will co-drive a Radical with his racing mum – Sue Hughes – this weekend in a double duty effort, but adapted quickly to the Formula 3 Dallara from R-Tek Motorsport.
Tim Macrow and James Winslow topped the pair of sessions held today, Macrow the first and Winslow the second.
The championship leader was fastest by six-tenths in practice two, the next three cars split by just one-tenth in an indication of just how close it will be this weekend.
Several struggled – at least according to the time sheets, however with Friday’s practice allowing entries to run previously marked old or new rubber, times varied depending on the condition of the Kumho’s utilised.
Everyone will run the same new rubber for Qualifying tomorrow in what should give a more even indication of who is where in the pecking order.
There was nothing between Steel Guiliana – on home turf – and Chris Gilmour today, whilst the BF Racing duo of Ben Gersekowski and Hayden Cooper each showed their competitive edge by mixing it with the championship-class cars in the second session.
Darwin class winner Lockie Marshall was also in the mix, whilst Sydney team AGI Sport returned to the track for the first time since Bathurst; though it took to the second session to do it.
Delays on an inbound flight from his holiday saw driver Nathan Gotch miss the first session, though he arrived in time for the second run later in the afternoon.
The F3 Australian Drivers Championship field takes to the track for a 20-minute qualifying session tomorrow at 10:50am local time, ahead of the first 10-lap race at 14:05PM. |
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