One-Litre F3 Historic Racing Association

21st October 2017 - Silverstone National

Hibberd Wins the Race and Milicevic the Championship

The 2017 Historic Formula 3 Championship wrapped in style with a superb race on the Silverstone National circuit as Andrew Hibberd (Brabham BT18) and Jon Milicevic (Brabham BT21B) delivered a glorious lead battle. While Hibberd won the race by just seven-hundredths of a second, Milicevic won the championship title.

Milicevic headed the qualifying times on a still damp track, conscious of the need to finish after two troubled weekends in September. He had half a second in hand over Hibberd who ran qualifying without a clutch after a problem developed while warming the car up Saturday morning.

Mike Scott’s Brabham BT28 was next up ahead of the smart March 703 of Andy Jarvis, making a welcome first appearance of the season. Jim Blockley (ChevronB17) and Gregan Thruston (Brabham BT21B) rounded out the top six qualifiers.

No one was more pleased to have Hibberd on the grid than Milicevic and their battle at the head of the pack was every bit as good as had been hoped. It was real cat-and-mouse stuff as they charged clear of the pack and they were seldom more than a few yards apart. As expected, the contest featured outstanding driving standards. Into the 19th and final lap, Milicevic dived ahead into Copse but Hibberd wasn’t finished and re-challenged on a wide line at Luffield.

They were side-by-side on the dash to the line and Hibberd got the nod by the tiny margin of seven-hundredths of a second in what was close to being a dead heat. Both drivers had thoroughly enjoyed the race and Milicevic was relieved to have finally clinched the title.

“It’s amazing the differences between the two cars,” said Hibberd after the race, having been quicker than his rival in some places yet losing out in others. Milicevic was quick to congratulate the race winner. “Absolutely fantastic,” said the new champion. “I just wanted to finish after two bad weekends.”

In the wake of the two leaders, Steve Smith (Chevron B15) drove a fine race to move up the order and overcome Scott for third while a magnificent contest raged for fifth between four cars. This was one-litre F3 dicing just as it was in period and the battle was impeccably clean as Blockley finally grabbed the place from the BrabhamBT21s of Paul Kite and Mark Linstone. Right in the thick of the battle for most of the race was Jarvis, but he dropped back in the closing stages.

Paul Lawrence

View Results and Timings (as a PDF document) [PDF]