Conway's British Formula 3 Campaign Off To Flying Start

Sevenoaks motor racing ace Mike Conway lived up to his pre-season billing as one of the favourites for this year's prestigious British Formula 3 Championship title by scoring two podium finishes on his debut in the category at Donington Park.

The 21-year old piloted his Fortec Motorsport-run, Opel Spiess-powered Dallara to a solid second place in race one on Donington's Grand Prix circuit, and followed it up with a fighting third in race two.

The results, easily the best achieved by any of this year's British F3 rookies, place Conway second in the championship points after two races, with only second year racer, Brazilian Danilo Dirani, ahead of him.

The Kent driver said he was pleased with his first outings in the full British F3 Championship, acknowledged as being one of the most important and competitive national motorsport series in the world. "I'm pretty happy," he said. "I could have maybe done slightly better in the first qualifying session but overall it was a good weekend. It's a strong start to the season, and I got some good points and podiums.

"Throughout pre-season testing, reigning Formula Renault UK champion and McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist Conway has been among the quickest drivers and pundits have tipped him to lift the title in his debut year of F3 racing.

At Donington Park on Saturday, he immediately proved that he deserved the tag of a frontrunner by qualifying third for both races and, in race one on Sunday morning, he felt a race win on his debut was not out of reach.

A fantastic start off the line moved Conway straight past Estonian Marko Asmer and into second place at Redgate corner and he stayed tucked up behind Dirani for the rest of the 20-lap race. "In the first half of the race, I was definitely quicker than Danilo," explained Conway. "If I'd been ahead of him at the start, I think I would have won easily. But Donington is one of those circuits where it's very hard to pass once you get close to the car in front."

Conway ended up just 1.781 seconds behind the Brazilian at the chequered flag. In race two, another searing start pushed Conway straight into second at Redgate corner again, but he ran slightly wide at Old Hairpin and dropped to fourth behind Dirani, Asmer and fellow Briton Dan Clarke.

A mistake by Clarke after four laps was immediately punished by Asmer and Conway, who moved into second and third respectively, Conway finishing just a second and a half shy of Asmer in the end. Once again, Conway was the top rookie driver, with only second year drivers ahead of him.

"I had a few chances at Asmer," said Conway. "But the track was dirty from the race before and I didn't want to take too many chances."

Two podiums on his debut in one of the toughest championships in the world is a strong start for Conway, though, and he is feeling very confident going into the second race meeting of the year at Spa in Belgium.

The Belgian Grand Prix circuit is one Conway has raced on before, in the junior category Formula Ford, and he is relishing the prospect of driving his 250bhp Dallara around the world famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit Ð renowned for being one of the greatest Ôdriver's circuits' in the world.

"This weekend proved that my race pace is right up there at the front," explained Conway. "For some drivers, this will be their first visit to Spa but I know the general outline of the circuit so I'm expecting to be very strong in two week's time."

Conway currently has 27 points in the British F3 Championship standings, 13 behind leader Dirani. The Spa meeting will take place on April 16/17.

Media contact: Andy Bothwell 07944 651166