Gallery Results 2015 08 August Zandvoort
29th-30th August 2015 - Zandvoort
Simon Armer marches on with two wins at the Gold Cup
Simon Armer was the big winner in the Historic Formula 3 Championship at Oulton Park with two hard-earned wins during the Gold Cup meeting (29/30 August) as the one-litre F3 cars delivered a pair of excellent races.
A 20-car entry gathered at the Cheshire track, although Saturday morning’s test sessions claimed the De Sanctis of Paul Waine with engine problems. Armer (March 703) showed that he was ready to bounce back from two non-finishes at Croft by taking pole with a second in hand over Christoph Widmer (Brabham BT18A) while Michael Scott was next up in his Brabham BT28.
In the opening contest Steve Seaman, from fourth on the grid, cut the early pace in his Brabham BT21 and Armer had to twice dive down the inside at the left-handed Cascades to get ahead. The first time Armer made the move Seaman quickly got the lead back on the International loop, but a lap later Armer made it stick and was handed a significantly increased lead a couple of laps later when Seaman arrived at Druids just too fast and spun.
Despite having to slow down to evict a wasp from inside his crash helmet, Mike Scott moved up to second in his Brabham from the similar BT28 of Leif Bosson as Seaman recovered for fourth just ahead of a close contest between Keith Messer (Vesey) and Jim Blockley (Brabham BT21B). It was an entertaining race with battles all the way down the field, though Widmer retired on the second lap when his car cut out at Cascades.
“I didn‘t think I’d made an awful start, but everyone went past me,” said Armer after having to work hard over the opening laps to regain lost ground. On hand to make the podium presentation was period F3 racer Alan Rollinson.
The second race ran towards the end of Sunday afternoon and it delivered a tremendous show for the big crowd as Seaman initially headed Armer and Widmer. Once again, some great battles raged all down the field and just about everyone had someone to race against.
The three leading cars ran neck-and-neck to echo the very best days of F3 racing and it took a big effort from Armer to finally wriggle ahead of Seaman as Widmer dropped to fourth with a spin.
“It was looking like second, but I managed to go round the outside at Shell,” said Armer. “I didn’t think he could do that,” added Seaman with a smile after a contest enjoyed by both drivers.
Scott led the chase of the leaders in third place, relieved not to have any wasp issues this time, while Widmer recovered for fourth before a fine battle between Bosson, Blockley and Messer crossed the line covered by just nine-tenths of a second. Rounding out the top 10 were Mark Linstone (Brabham BT21), Barry Sewell (Lotus 41) and Mike Pascall (Brabham BT21).
Paul Lawrence
View Results and Timings (as a PDF document) [PDF]
