18th-19th June 2016 - Cadwell Park
Milicevic Makes it Three
Jon Milicevic made it three wins from three races in Historic F3 with a double victory in rounds four and five of the HSCC Historic Formula 3 Championship at Cadwell Park over the weekend (18/19 June).
The Historic F3 races again remembered racing journalist Justin Haler with a trophy that honours the memory of the Autosport reporter who covered the 1-litre F3 category extensively in the late 1960s.
Milicevic (Brabham BT21B) put a marker down in qualifying by taking pole position, but both Peter Thompson (Brabham BT21) and Simon Armer (March 703) were within a second as Ewen Sergison (Brabham BT21) and Leif Bosson (Brabham BT28) completed the top five.
The polesitter didn’t get a great start into Saturday’s first race and was headed in the early laps by Armer before Milicevic got into his stride and edged ahead. Meanwhile, Armer dropped back with what proved to be a broken valve spring and it was Thompson who moved into second to keep the pressure on Milicevic.
In fact, Sergison was right on Armer’s tail after 20 minutes of flat out racing and only fifth-placed Jim Blockley (Chevron B17) had anything of a lonely race. Behind Blockley, four two-way contests raged to the flag to deliver an excellent race for a healthy crowd of spectators. Jon Waggitt (Lotus 31) just headed Bosson for sixth while Marcus Mussa (Tecno) narrowly headed Steve Seaman (Brabham BT21) in the next battle.
Sergison was the early star of Sunday’s race as he flew off the line from pole position to take an immediate lead as Milicevic again struggled to get the Brabham away. Thompson jumped into second place and this trio started to pull away as Armer went after them. Meanwhile, battles raged all down the field as everyone had someone to race with.
Once into his stride, Milicevic jumped Thompson for second and set about finding a chink in Sergison’s defences. Sure enough, the blue Brabham squeezed ahead into Park as Armer made it a four-way contest, though it was soon back to three when Thompson retired with damaged rear suspension.
The challenge from Armer on Sergison for second was good news for Milicevic as it took the pressure off the leader a little, but it was an absorbing contest and after 13 laps there was only a second and a half to cover three cars. As they flashed across the finish line, Armer was only three-tenths of a second behind Sergison at the end of a real crowd-pleaser.
Blockley fended off Mussa for fourth place while Mark Linstone (Brabham BT21) worked up to sixth after some entertaining battling to finish ahead of Seaman, Julian Maynard (Chevron B17) and Bosson.
“I’ve got to get these clutch starts sorted,” said Milicevic. “But it made a good race of it! That was really good fun getting through to the lead and the car has fantastic grip. These cars are very addictive and they are proper racing cars.”
“John’s very quick and he’s so precise,” said Sergison. “He just got a better run out of the corner onto the back straight and came down the inside into Park.” Armer was pleased to be on the podium with the engine working properly once more after Saturday’s broken valve spring. “I had a great scrap with Ewen and it was very close,” said Armer.
Paul Lawrence
The Justin Haler Trophy for the combined race result went to Jon Milicevic, with Ewen Sergison just piping Simon Armer for second.
