Increasingly competitive BRDC British Formula 3 drivers Thomas Maxwell and Eugene Denyssen go into the penultimate event of the season at Snetterton next weekend, 6th/7th August, aiming to reproduce the excellent form they showed for SWR last time out at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
Returning to UK soil for rounds 19, 20 and 21 of the campaign, the championship also makes its second appearance of the year at the Norfolk venue’s 300 Circuit where the 2016 season for the refreshed and rejuvenated BRDC F3 category began back in March.
Maxwell and Denyssen, who are both in their maiden season at F3 level, have shown some terrific flashes of pace and performance throughout the year but the highlight so far came at Spa three weeks ago where each of the Chipping Norton team’s drivers excelled.
Australian racer Maxwell, who originates from Darwin, matched his previous best of seventh place in Belgium and was actually on course for a possible top five finish in the opening encounter when he had the misfortune of sustaining a puncture which then compromised the weekend.
With the race one incident impacting his starting position for race two, the SWR rookie encountered a challenging second contest but in race three he was rewarded with a fine seventh position after a great performance to conclude the event ninth in the championship.
In the second SWR Tatuus-Cosworth, South African driver Denyssen has made some marked steps forward in his first season in the category but during the Spa weekend he elevated himself onto an entirely new level with stunning pace throughout.
Lapping with top three pace in practice, Denyssen went on to almost match Maxwell’s season best qualifying run with a mere 0.050 seconds separating the two SWR contenders. Like his team-mate, Denyssen did experience some bad luck in race one but he hit back in style to round-out his first visit to Spa with a season-best eighth place in the final contest, right behind Maxwell.
“It’s good to be going back to Snetterton next weekend and after such a strong outing at Spa the whole team cannot wait to be back in action”, said Sean Walkinshaw, SWR team owner, “Tom and Eugene did an incredible job at Spa across the entire weekend, as did all of the guys in the team.
“We really did make a bit of a breakthrough, the pace was strong right from opening practice and both drivers continued that level of performance. If race one had gone our way a little bit more it could have been an even better weekend, but we were all very happy with the steps we made and we’re now aiming to reproduce that at Snetterton. The guys know the track, so that’s a great start.”
Qualifying for the penultimate weekend of BRDC British Formula 3 action will get underway at 11.10 on Saturday, 6th August, with the opening race following at 14.55. On Sunday, 7th August, race two will get underway at 10.20 with the final contest beginning at 14.40.
2016 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship Driver Standings:
9th Thomas Maxwell, 190pts; 14th Jan Jonck, 142pts; 16th Eugene Denyssen, 126pts