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The
fast but extremely bumpy Sandown circuit in Melbourne was the host
to round 3 of the Australian formula 3 championship.
For many of the drivers this was there first visit to this famous
track and this included both of the Team BRM drivers Karl Reindler
and Nic Jordan.
Fridays practice was used as a chance for both drivers to gain the
confidence on the track in order to be competitive for the Saturday
Qualifying.
The Team has raced at this venue before and good set up data was
available to assist the 2 drivers.
Karl driving the National Tyres Dallara Spiess 301 soon was producing
competitive times. " The track is extremely bumpy but I like
the fast flowing nature of the layout" said Reindler. Nic Jordan
said the bumpy track reminded him of Pukekoe in New Zealand.
A lovely day greeted the Team for Qualifying and from the first
lap Karl was extremely quick soon establishing P2 behind championship
leader Ian Dyk.
Astuti racing soon had Dyk in the pits to watch the rest of the
field try and catch him.
Reindler continued to work on his lap times along with Chris Gilmore
who ultimately gained the pole from Reindler with Dyk having to
settle for 3rd position.
Times were very fast with the top 7 competitors within 1second of
the pole time and Reindler missing pole by 5 one hundreds of a second
Nic Jordan in the trophy class AMS Group /ROH wheels Dallara 398
Spiess also quickly moved down into competitive times but he had
a good driver in Glen Hastings also racing in this class so his
job to get pole was made more interesting.
For most of the session Jordan held a 1 second gap to Hastings but
as so often happens at Sandown the last lap often provides the fastest
lap and proved to be the case with Hastings pipping Jordan for Pole.
Team
owner Bronte Rundle was highly complimentary of Reindler's efforts."
Karl was determined to put his car on the front row of the grid
and the way he went about the session was perfect. He has a good
race package so tomorrow should be exiting."
In assessing Jordan's qualifying Rundle complimented the 16 year
old for his work rate to establish a lap time that was not far short
of the championship cars .It will be good for Nic to have some competition
from Glen said Rundle, he needs to race against good competition.
Second
Qualifying had Reindler having an early spin which upset his rhythm
for a while but after coming into the pits and talking to his engineer
Ian Richards he began to gets his lap times down. Dyk produced a
very good lap for pole followed very closely by Gilmore.
Reindler finished 4th for a row 2 start for race 2.
Jordan had an uneventful qualifying session reversing the order
on Hastings for the race.
Commenting on the session Reindler said he struggled to get a clear
lap in the beginning of the session but after pitting he got a good
couple of laps in.
Jordan was happy with his car after a small roll bar adjustment
improved his handling.
RACE
1
Overcast
but dry conditions .The usual starting procedure changes at the
last minute greeted the drivers
The whole field managed a clean get away with Gilmore leading from
Papas with Karl being pushed back to 6th due to some desperate moves
at turn 1. The top 7 drivers then put on a great display of fast
but safe diving for the whole race. Dyk was just in front of Reindler
for the first half of the race but in the passing move of the day
Karl passed Dyk over the top of the back straight. Considering this
is a blind corner taken flat out at 225 KPH it really showed the
talent of this young driver? Dyk hounded Reindler for the rest of
the race and similarly Karl worked on getting around Papas .Gilmore
was able to benefit from this intense racing and established a winning
buffer at the front. The finishing order being Gilmore, Papas, Reindler,
Dyk.
When asked after the race how he managed to get around Dyk, Karl
commented that he got a good tow up the back straight and established
his position on Dyk coming to the rise. "It was a bit hairy
up there" said Karl" "but Ian is a fair driver to
race against so I kept my boot in it and got passed him". The
car was handling really well so I had confidence in it."
Nic
Jordan's race was uneventful. Unfortunately Hastings had a CV joint
break on the warm up lap so any chance of a good race was spoiled.
Jordan comfortably won the trophy class and used the race to increase
his points.
Team owner Bronte Rundle commented after the race it was one of
the most exiting F3 races he had seen and he couldn't wait to see
the in car footage from Karl's pass on Dyk." Karl amazes me
with his talent" said Rundle we must remember this is only
his 10th race meeting in a F3 car, yet he races with maturity beyond
his experience.
RACE 2.
As
usual at this time of the year team engineers spend most of the
hour leading up to the race looking at the sky to see what the weather
was going to do. There was no exception for this race, intermittent
showers were coming and going.
As the cars went to the track slight drizzle started so the drivers
were greeted with a slightly wet track for the start.
Both Karl and Dyk didn't get away well, allowing Gilmore to gain
the lead from Papas. Karl was down in 7th to start with. With Dyk
just in front, Karl soon passed Dyk and set after the leading pack.
Passing was difficult due to the increasingly slippery conditions.
Karl was handling these very difficult conditions well and as the
race unfolded several others were not up to the task and fell by
the way. The race was won by Gilmore with Pettit 2nd, Reindler 3rd
and Dyk trailing a distant 4th.
In fact he was nearly caught by Nic Jordan on the last lap.
After the race Reindler commented that he knew the track was slippery
so he ensured that he kept the car balanced all the time so he could
capitalize on any mistakes from the others.
Team owner Bronte Rundle said that Karl obviously used his head
during this race there was great potential for an accident due to
the slippery track but Karl was able to assess this and plan his
race to suit.
Jordan similarly excelled in these conditions .He was able to comfortably
lead Hastings to win Trophy class but finished 6th outright only
0.7seconds behind Dyk.
"Nics car control in these slippery conditions was fantastic"
said Rundle. "He has never driven a car with this amount of
power in the wet, let alone on slick tyres. At 16 years of age,
New Zealand has a great talent to look to the future with."
IN SUMMARY.
"It's
points that wins championships, Karl has pulled back the gap that
Dyk had but Gilmore has slipped ahead now. This championship has
a long way to go yet" said Rundle.
I was extremely happy with both of these young drivers They had
not even seen this track on Friday but they both performed with
great professionalism.
The
next round is at Winton Raceway June 18 /19th
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