Gallery Results 2017 05 May Silverstone HGP
Gallery Results 2017 10 October Silverstone National
20th-21st May 2017 - Silverstone HGP
Milicevic Takes Both Wins
Jon Milicevic swept to an impressive double win in the second and third rounds of the Historic Formula 3 Championship on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit over the weekend (Saturday/Sunday 20/21 May).
After a very wet race on Saturday, the sun shone on Sunday as a fabulous grid of 1-litre Formula 3 cars raced at the high-profile HSCC Silverstone International Trophy meeting. In both races, Milicevic had to cope with a determined challenge from Andrew Hibberd while Steve Smith and Peter Thompson each had a visit to the podium.
It was dry for qualifying on Saturday and the 22-strong field was topped by the Brabham BT21B of local ace Milicevic, a driver with extensive experience of the high speed sweeps of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. Hibberd was second fastest in his BT18 ahead of a closely-matched pack comprising Smith (Chevron B15), Thompson (BT21), James Claridge (Tecno), Francois Derossi (Chevron B17) and Paul Waine in the rare De Sanctis.
The weather was very different by the time of the opening race at the end of Saturday’s programme and the track was very wet and slippery as the grid formed. Milicevic and Hibberd made light of the conditions, however, and turned in an impressive display to quickly pull clear of the rest. They even ran side-by-side several times before Milicevic was able to edge a couple of seconds clear.
Smith had a solid if rather lonely race to claim third ahead of Christoph Widmer (Brabham BT18A) who turned in one of the performances of the race to climb from tenth place on the grid and finish a fine fourth. He led home a pack of cars that included the Brabham BT28s of Mark Pangborn and Michael Scott and the Chevron of Derossi.
Sunday’s race ran in warm sunshine and the overall result was the same. However, Hibberd pressed Milicevic hard over the opening laps until a time-consuming moment stretched the gap out to around 10 seconds and ensured that Milicevic was able to maintain his impressive record on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.
After a non-finish on Saturday following a minor bump, Thompson raced to a clear third as an excellent battle for fourth ended in the order Claridge, Derossi and Jim Blockley (Brabham BT21B). Another race-long battle for seventh was finally resolved in the order Scott, Steve Seaman (Brabham BT21) and Widmer.
It had been a fine weekend of racing on a tremendous circuit for the Historic F3 cars with a strong grid of superbly presented cars. The action continues on 17/18 June at the Wolds Trophy meeting at Cadwell Park.
Paul Lawrence
View Results and Timings (as a PDF document) [PDF]
