Formula 3 Testing - Croft

[Gaz]

F3 testing at Croft both today and tomorrow. The final test before the opening round at Donington a week Sunday.

Morning Times -

1. Dirani 1.14.945
2. Asmer + 0.189
3. Bridgman +0.584
4. Bakkerud
5. Stoddart
6. Jelley
7. Kimball
8. Mawer (N)
9. Hollings (N)
10. Senna

Conway and Walker struggling down the bottom of the timesheets well off the pace which is a little strange.

Dirani and Asmer easily had the legs on everyone this morning by the looks of it. Again it worries me slightly how quick those National cars are. Really would you expect Charles Hollings for instance to be in the top 10?

Whose Barton Mawer driving for anyone?

[Bobby]

Originally Posted by Gaz

Again it worries me slightly how quick those National cars are. Really would you expect Charles Hollings for instance to be in the top 10?

Whose Barton Mawer driving for anyone?

I don't think you need to "worry" about the speed of the National class cars....

The National Class Mugen is at least 5 bhp down on the Championship Class Mugen and thats without the qualifying map that they will use when the action starts....

Also conditions at croft during the morning where a bit "iffy". Dirani's best time is not very fast, these cars has the potential of low 1.13 in the right conditions...

Bart is driving for T-Sport!

[Gaz]

Cheers for the info Bobby, i hadn't checked times against last year so wasn't sure how comparative they were.

Hope your right about the National Class, we debated this a while back and I still believe its not for the good of the championship to see National drivers in the top 10 overall when there's a grid of 15 or more Championship guys.

Didn't realise Bart was signed up, he should go well. Hope he's got the budget for the full year this time though!

Trying to work out who's missing that we can expect to see at Donny. I notice Valle Makela isn't out which is a bit of a shame. How many can we expect at Donny? Sure foxy mole can enlighten us when she returns and gets online!

[Valker]

Looks like Fluid (and Valle) wasn't testing...

...and it's Juho, not Yuho as MST writes it. (but j is pronounced in Finnish as y is in English (atleast as the first letter of the word ))

[Gaz]

Afternoon Times -

1. Asmer 1.14.484s
2. Conway + 0.095
3. Senna + 0.215
4. Kimball
5. Stoddart
6. Bridgman
7. Bakkerud
8. Clarke
9. Hollings (N)
10. Jelley

So Dirani didn't run in the afternoon...anybody know any reasons why?

Good effort by Bruno Senna that as well

[Zurich]

Originally Posted by Gaz

So Dirani didn't run in the afternoon...anybody know any reasons why?

He had a throttle problem that threw him into the wall at Sunny just before the lunch break.

He was planning to get back out when I spoke to him at lunchtime, but he spent the afternoon session standing around the garage looking glum while mechanics fiddled with the car.

[Zurich]

Originally Posted by Gaz

Trying to work out who's missing that we can expect to see at Donny. I notice Valle Makela isn't out which is a bit of a shame. How many can we expect at Donny? Sure foxy mole can enlighten us when she returns and gets online!

Fluid didn't turn up, but everyone else was there.

[Grahame West]

He wasn't the only one who had a problem at sunny as there were 2 off and 23 overshot or spun & continued.

[rdjones]

Susie Stoddart looks to have a good day and seems to be on the pace. Testing continues tomorrow, had I know in advanced I would have booked the day and work and popped up for a look.

[bella]

she looked on the pace today, but from what i can gather, everyone was the pace at some point or other throughout the day...

[Chucky]

Originally Posted by Gaz

Whose Barton Mawer driving for anyone?

T-Sport.

Press release only came through last night.

[mitchie]

Good to see Bart up the order.

Hopefully he can put some good results on the board and attract some backing, only has enough to do the first couple of rounds unfortunately.

[Kicking-back]

Good to see Susie showing some speed.

Lets hope she can translate it into hard results.

[strider]

Ryan Lewis was absent yesterday, but is out today for T-Sport.

Also, Justin Sherwood has replaced Suk Sandher in the Performance Racing Nationl Class car for today's test.

[Gaz]

Christ, there's a name I'd forgotten!

Just reading in motorsportnews that Steven Kane, Joey Foster and Alvaro Parente are all in line to race in the Championship Class for performance. You have any inside info on the likeliness of this happening foxy? Would be great to have all three in to be honest!

Any news on Fluid and Valle as well?

[Marcel ten Caat]

What happened to Parente, did he lose (some) sponsor(s)?

First he was rumoured to do either another season in British F3 with Carlin or GP2 with Carlin or World Series with Carlin.

Then his name suddenly disappeared and now he's in line for a seat with Performance?

[Gaz]

Wednesday Morning Times -

1. Walker 1.14.190s
2. Hollings (N) + 0.091s
3. Asmer
4. Dirani
5. Lewis
6. Bridgman
7. Conway
8. Jelley
9. Bakkerud
10. Stoddart

Now I'm not at Croft and I don't know anyone that is to get the story but it seems a bit silly a National Class driver being second overall. I know its only testing blah, blah, blah but its an indication that these guys are going to be in the top 10 overall come a week Sunday. I mean drivers of quality a few years back like Carroll and Dahlgren it wasn't so bad but when you have drivers such as Charles Hollings second overall you know you have problems!

Good job by James Walker this morning, although as always this is only testing!

[Kicking-back]

Chuck a bit more ballast on the National Class cars.

Ideally the fastest one should be 2-3 seconds slower than the fastest Championship class car.

[keithsekree]

Good driving has obviously been rewarded with a good time. I don't see the problem.

[Kicking-back]

The problem is that there's not much point in having a class structure which is intended to be a step up to "proper F3" if it is just as fast as the real thing.

[keithsekree]

Point taken. But with such massive costs involved if you can prove yourself at a sub-level then why not? Its obviously an issue for the rule makers rather than the drivers.

[Kicking-back]

I agree with you there - if that's the situation, I'd expect any driver to do it - but I do think it's an issue for the organisers to address.

[Gaz]

Kicking back is quite right, there is little point in having two classes if you can run in the b-class at a cheaper cost and still compete at the very front of the overall field. Its not down to the fact these drivers are especially good its down to the fact that their cars are much more developed having been run for three years or whatever.

I know its only testing, but if anyone thinks Charlie Hollings is capable of running second overall in a championship class car let alone the b class car he's in they need their heads severly testing!

[wh00t]

I thought B-class cars were supposed to run different spec engines as well?

Overall I think the 2005 cars should be a little quicker, however in this beginning fase there might not be a lot of data regarding setups yet for the 2005, which you do have for the b-class cars.

[strider]

Umm, perhaps things will be different when Charlie Hollings is using a National Class engine next weekend, instead of a full-on Championship Class one...