The 2011 Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship will be a two-way battle between Chris Gilmour and James Winslow after the pair dominated proceedings at Sandown Raceway today.
While Gilmour hustled past Winslow on a restart to win this morning’s sprint race, Winslow returned serve in the feature race to close the gap to his rival to just 20 points, with two back-to-back rounds and six races remaining.
Winslow was pleased to have won this weekend to work his way back into the title hunt.
“It’s great to have another title fight – it always seems to work out that we go into the final rounds split by just a few points,” he said.
“It always goes down to the wire but to be honest, I’m not really thinking much about it too much. This weekend was just about getting back on track and seeing how it would all work out and the results have been great.”
The R-Tek driver also set the fastest lap in each race this weekend, scoring three bonus points towards his championship charge and leaving Sandown with the new F3 lap record.
Gilmour’s fighting win in the second sprint race showed that he will have the ability to compete for the championship for the second time in his lengthy F3 career – the Queenslander utilising a restart following a safety car to tow Winslow down to turn one and slip past on the switchback before turn two.
“The car was super fast this weekend and we went with James in two of the races this weekend – but he was stronger in the third,” Gilmour said.
“But we are competitive and feel we’re in a good position. The best thing is we still lead by 20 points, so we have a margin to play with but we need to attack and win some more races in the last two rounds.”
Magro fought his way back to third place in the feature race after spinning out of the second this morning, his Magro Motorsport / team BRM Dallara clipping a slippery kerb and spinning across the circuit – into the racing path of the unfortunate Ben Gersekowski, who was also eliminated from the race.
In the Forpark Australia National class, Josh Burdon rebounded from his rollover at the previous round to win the major race this afternoon.
The final two rounds of the F3 Australian Drivers Championship will be held back-to-back at Phillip Island (Nov 4-6) with the Shannons Nationals, and the following weekend at Symmons Plains in Tasmanian with the V8 Supercars, on November 11-13.
Championship Points – after 5 of 7 rounds.
Chris Gilmour 147
James Winslow 127
John Magro 114
Steel Guiliana 86
Ben Gersekowski 78
Forpark Australia F3 Scholarship / National Class
Steel Guiliana 171
Ben Gersekowski 154
Roman Krumins 106
Josh Burdon 100
Tim Macrow 47
