10th October 2015 - Castle Combe
Simon Armer and Leif Bosson scored the major victories
Simon Armer and Leif Bosson scored the major victories in the final two rounds of the Historic Formula 3 Championship at Castle Combe on Saturday (10 October) in the first one-litre F3 races at the Wiltshire track for 45 years.
While Armer (March 703) drove superbly to win both races, Leif Bosson (Brabham BT28) turned in yet another consistently strong performance to claim the 2015 title. Some tremendous racing capped the season in style in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd.
Armer is clearly a quick learner as he planted the March on pole after his first taste of the challenging Wiltshire track. He’d had a little instruction on Friday, but pole by three-quarters of a second was still very impressive. James King (Chevron B17) was another circuit newcomer and was second fastest from series debutee Ewen Sergison in Jim Blockley’s Brabham BT21B.
Michael Scott (Brabham BT28) and Peter Thompson (Brabham BT21) completed a very competitive top six, while Bosson was seventh fastest knowing that a top six finish in race one would be enough to settle the season-long title contest in his favour.
The opening race was a cracker although early retirements with oil pressure concerns were Gerry Wainwright (guesting in the March 703 he has restored for Andy Jarvis) and Michael Hibberd on his first outing with the ex-Chris Irwin Brabham BT18.
Up front, Armer led away but King nipped ahead when Armer had a grassy moment. Then, as he rushed over Avon Rise for the third time, King looped into a high speed spin and clonked the barriers, so his day was over. Yellow flags for that incident served to bunch the pack and a five-car lead pack formed as Thompson nipped ahead.
However, Armer gathered his thoughts and went back ahead to win by two seconds from Thompson who had Scott and Jim Blockley (Chevron B17) close behind while Paul Kite was not far adrift in Mike Pascall’s Brabham BT21.
Another tremendous five-way contest raged for sixth and Bosson just wriggled to the head of the queue to take the place and the title. However, Keith Messer (Vesey), Mark Linstone (Brabham BT21), Steve Seaman (BT21) and Marcus Mussa (Tecno) ran him very close.
“That was a very scrappy first half,” admitted Armer. “But well done to Leif; he’s driven immaculately all year and he’s a very worthy champion.”
Later in the afternoon the pack assembled for the second race of the day and the final race of the season. This time Armer got away from the start and his escape was aided when Sergison went off at Quarry on the third lap. Thompson slotted into second place but could not close down Armer’s lead while Scott joined the podium party with a strong third.
Blockley just fended off Kite for fourth as a cracking five-way battle raged for sixth. This time, Seaman headed them home from Messer, Linstone, Bosson and Mussa.
The final word goes to the new champion, Leif Bosson. “It has been really great: an absolutely fabulous season,” he said. “I couldn’t dream of this when the season started. It was my first time at Castle Combe and it is a very challenging track. I will come back next year with number one on the car!”
Paul Lawrence
View Results and Timings (as a PDF document) [PDF]
