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James Cole - Formula 3 National Series
Photographs and
report by Craig Boon
SOUTHPORT'S
Formula 3 National Series racer James Cole came away from a
difficult weekend’s racing at Thruxton in Hampshire by extending a
slim 10 point overall series lead over his T-Sport team mate and
National series contender Menasheh Idafar. The National series uses
the Dallara F307 chassis, which was 1st raced in the 2007 season.
The unique nature of Thruxton, which is renowned as the UK’s fastest
circuit (essentially leaving the classic high speed airfield layout
alone), shows the evolutions made since then. The later 2008 to 2010
chassis used in the International class slipstreaming past him
despite his best endeavours after his 3 superb starts in which he
gained up to 4 places off the line. The weekend consisted of the
usual practice and qualifying sessions although this wasn’t plain
sailing as problems with the engine during qualifying needed an
engine change to fix. In the following 3 races that ran over both
days, 7 August 2010 to 8 August 2010, James came home with a class
win in the 1st 27 lap race (after a dramatic penultimate lap crash
by Idafar) taking his 10th class win of the season. James came in
2nd in the 2nd 17 lap sprint race after hard but clean racing with
Menasheh for pretty much the entire distance, the lead changing at
least once. The final race proved very difficult after 2
International series drivers whom he was dicing with came together
and spinning off into the tyre wall causing heavy damage to his rear
wing and rear suspension wishbones. The lengthy pit stop required to
fix the damage put James down a lap where he finished, however still
taking valuable points for 2nd in the National series. Cole reported
his weekend saying:- “Thruxton is a great track to drive and really
needs nerves of steel for the high speed sections, especially when
you’re racing wheel to wheel. It wasn’t one of my best weekends, but
the result went my way in the end, as I achieved my goal of leaving
the event back in the lead of the championship. Idafar and I are
pushing each other to the limit and that’s good for both of us, and
I’m making sure that I keep a sensible head to prioritise strong
performances and points finishes. Mixing it with the International
Class cars wasn’t as easy for us at this fast track, but we were
still able to beat some of these guys, and that’s always the aim at
this level of racing.” James will be in action again this weekend at
the world famous Silverstone GP circuit (silverstone.co.uk
for tickets); we will be there as well covering his push for F3
victory in this, his 1st year in the championship. Good luck James.
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