Electric Watts
Our Formula 3 columnist Danny Watts has been a busy boy of late, and while his laptop might have shunted recently and required a four-corner rebuild (hence his two-race catch-up), his fortunes on track have been much more productive, as he explains
Normally over July and August most people are on holiday soaking up the sun and getting away from work and spending time with the family recharging their batteries, but not for people involved in motorsport! Four weeks ago I was at Little Rissington Kart Circuit keeping sharp and race-fit by racing in Senior Rotax Max - I finished a rather rusty 8th out of 42!
One week later we were at the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 event at Zandvoort. An absolutely fantastic race meeting with 65,000 spectators, the best F3 boys from Britain and Europe, the Marlboro girls and, of course, the beach, a five-minute walk from my pit garage - lovely!
It was great to be the sole Lola-Dome against the 41 other Dallaras, and to be two-tenths off in qualifying and 12th on the grid proves how close the times were. After a race long battle with a "wide and lairy" Franck Perera, we managed a top 10 finish with my ex-Fortec Formula Renault team-mate and current Euro F3 Championship leader Jamie Green one place in front.
After returning from Zandvoort the following day, my Lola-Dome F106/04 Mugen Honda was quickly stripped, cleaned and rebuilt for our official test on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit three days later. On the Sunday morning I lined up for my home race (I live in Buckingham, just 10 minutes away) a competitive fifth on the grid with big-hitters Piquet, Carroll, Rossiter and Power in front of me on the grid.
My start was a peach and I jumped straight into third position, which is where I stayed until the chequered flag. Our second podium of the year was very rewarding, as the Promatecme team is based on site, as is my sponsor the BRDC, while Lola is just down the road in Huntingdon.
Since then I have been working hard at Silverstone Racing School, and now Thruxton is upon us...
I'm really looking forward to this weekend as Thruxton is a seriously challenging circuit for an F3 car, and I stuck it on pole there last year. The Lola-Dome is mega in high-speed corners and should go well. We have two 50-minute sessions to get dialled in to the circuit in testing then straight into qualifying on Sunday morning.
Let's hope for a third podium of the year!
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