9th-10th July 2022 - Brands Hatch
Historic Formula 3 Championship Rounds 7 & 8
Samuel Harrison was the star of the HSCC Historic Formula 3 Championship during a double-header weekend on the magnificent Brands Hatch GP circuit (9/10 July).
Building on the runaway success of the Donington Park races three weeks earlier, a glorious 30-car entry was assembled for the chance to tackle the famous Brands GP circuit.
A couple of late problems and at least one positive Covid test eliminated four cars, but there was still a fine field of 26 cars heading out for qualifying on Saturday morning. Teenager Harrison served notice of his intentions by posting the pole time on only his second flying lap. With a 1m37.841s best he was quickest by just over a second from the similar Chevron B15 of Jeremy Timms. The two Chevrons were well clear of the rest of the pack, which was headed by Steve Seaman in his Brabham BT21.
There was a delay to the start of Saturday’s opening race when some oil went down on the warming up lap. But that made little difference to Harrison who shot into an intermediate lead when the lights went out. To his great credit, Jeremy Timms never stopped chasing the youngster and was seldom more than a couple of seconds adrift. But Harrison had things under control for another classy victory.
At the flag, Timms was just over two seconds back and such was their pace that they had built a substantial lead over the rest of the field where there was lots of dicing and battling going on. Seaman ran third for the first half of the race, but then spun out of Surtees and just kissed the barriers on the inside of the corner. Unfortunately, he was unable to restart and spent the rest of the race as a spectator.
Instead, up into third place came a wonderful race-long battle between Francois Derossi (Chevron B17), Christoph Widmer (Brabham BT18A) and Simon Armer (March 703). It was a close run thing throughout as they battled mightily, but at the flag Derossi got the place by just under a second with Armer only half a second behind Widmer.
Ian Bankhurst had to race hard to work his Alexis MK8 home in sixth before another great battle involving Will Penrose (Tecno), Josh Sharp (Chevron B17) and Mark Linstone (Brabham BT21). That was ultimately how they finished but it could have gone any way after 10 hugely entertaining laps.
Rounding out the top 10 was former McLaren designer Steve Nichols in his Chevron B17, but he had to work hard to see off the Tecno of Roland Fischer. All of the welcome European visitors gave a great account of themselves and claimed three of the top 11 places.
On a weekend when he won a total of four races, Harrison carried on during Sunday in the second Historic F3 race just as he had finished Saturday's race. The superb grid made a fantastic sight and sound on the Brands GP circuit, but Harrison was in a league of his own as he stretched clear of the chasing pack in the Speedsport Chevron.
Just as he had on Saturday, Jeremy Timms gave valiant chase in his B15 and ensured that Harrison didn't have a complete domination. However, Timms was still five seconds adrift at the flag as the teenager further underlined his status as one of the key rising stars of historic racing.
Behind the leading pair, the gaps soon stretched as battles raged all the way down the field. Jason Timms (Jeremy’s cousin) moved through well to join Jeremy on the overall podium with his Brabham BT21.
Bankhurst was out into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend, which prompted a brief mid-race safety car but it didn't un-seat Harrison from his road to victory. There were some great battles further down, included that of Armer, Seaman, Derossi and Widmer who finished in that order after some tremendous wheel-to-wheel racing.
Paul Lawrence
