06 August 2001

V-Sports and T-Cars - Donington Park

Miku Santavirta was proved unbeatable as the V-Sports Racing series returned to Donington Park at the weekend. The Finnish ace set out his stall in qualifying where he blasted to pole position for the first race of the day with a blistering 1m29.323 lap of the circuit, nearly half a second clear of his nearest rival, Intersport's Kevin Clarke.

In the first race Miku drove faultlessly converting a perfect rolling start into a healthy lead which Clarke was unable to respond to. At the flag he was 7.7 seconds ahead to record his fourth V-Sports win of the season. In the second race Miku again performed a masterly start and once again disappeared into the distance although on this occasion it was the magnificent looking Jaguar of Barry Lee giving chase to no avail. Miku's margin of victory this time was 5.4 seconds and he again beat the V-Sports lap record set three years back by current sports car ace Mike Jordan.

Making his V-Sports debut was German hot shoe Alex Muller, the Brask Management driver being slotted into the drive as an opportunity to gain circuit knowledge ahead of this coming weekend's European Formula 3000 event at Donington. Alex quickly adapted to life on track in a saloon and posted the fifth quickest time in qualifying - all the more impressive in one of the biggest V-Sports fields of the year. In the first race Alex finished 7th after being taken off the circuit at McLeans early on. In the second race he really got to grips with the car and moved up from seventh at the start to third at the flag.

The T-Cars provided two of the day's best races and proved that the future of British motor racing is in safe hands. Ryan Lewis qualified third for both of the saloon car races for teenagers. In the first race Ryan was part of a race long four way battle for the lead in which he sparred with Ben Reeves, Tom Chilton and Thomas Shrimpton. Ryan displayed a real fighting spirit and proved he has the ability to race wheel to wheel with the leading drivers in the class. Any one of the four drivers could have won as places were traded lat after lap but it was Reeves who was ahead at the flag from Chilton with Ryan third ahead of Shrimpton.

The second race was just as fraught with Chilton getting away at the start this time from Reeves with Ryan again in third. After being passed in the early stages Ryan fought back to third and then passed Reeves but was bundled off the circuit by his rival and dropped down the pack. Despite this Ryan got his head down and recovered to 6th place at the flag grabbing a new lap record (the second of the day for Team Brask) along the way.

Allan Simonsen's Dutch F3 Challenge

Following an invitation to join the Van Amersfoort Formula 3 team for the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort, Denmark’s Allan Simonsen was under no illusions as to the enormity of the mountain to climb if he had to climb if he was to qualify for the Marlboro Masters race against the cream of the Formula 3 world.

Because of the late opportunity provided by Van Amersfoort, Allan had no opportunity to acquaint himself with a Formula 3 car in the dry until the first untimed session on Friday. The format of the Marlboro Masters provides two untimed free practice sessions of half an hour each on the Friday and two half hour qualifying sessions on the Saturday. Because of the large entry of 45 cars, qualifying is split into two sessions for even numbered cars and sessions for odd numbered cars. Friday's two free practice sessions quickly established the size of the task with the standard being set by British Formula 3 Championship leader Takumo Sato being quickest. Allan made good progress and without any spins and gained the maximum track time during the two sessions. Odd numbered cars opened the qualifying Saturday morning with Benoit Treluyer emerging fastest in his Signature team Dallara Renault. In the second qualifying session, the first for even numbered cars, Sato set a sensational time a full six tenths quicker than second quickest Andre Lotterer. Still learning the car and the track, and Bridgstones somewhat quirky tyres, Allan finished the session second from last some 2.9 seconds behind Sato, and 2.3 seconds behind Lotterer. These two qualifying sessions would prove to be the fastest of the day, as the second sessions for both groups proved markedly slower. For Allan this was less than ideal as he was improving with every session, and so it proved for Allan in his second qualifying session made a tremendous improvement of nearly a second over the earlier session to end up just on two seconds from Sato. Sato’s 1.33.9 was over three tenths slower than his first session qualifying time. In reality this meant an improvement for Allan against Sato of 1.2 seconds.

It was an impressive performance which promoted him to 19th in the session. Although the fastest nineteen cars from the session qualified for the race, the faster times from the first session meant that he did not make the cut. It was of course a disappointment for Allan and the team, but Van Amersffort were delighted with Allans performance and the incredible progress made in four short sessions together, said Fritz Van Amersfoort, “We always knew it was going to be a very difficult job for Allan to qualify here, but the job he did was very, very impressive, and I don’t say that lightly. It is a pity we could not have had just a little more time, as I’m sure he could qualified well.” While the non qualification is disappointing it is also a source of great encouragement as when Allan can make such big steps it shows how much more he can improve.