Snetterton is the venue for the third round of the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Championship and features the fifth and sixth races of the Avon tires British GT Championship over the weekend of 21 and 22 of June.
The third round for the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Series kicks off at the Norwich circuit, with a field of young drivers ready to take to the track for the weekend’s three races.
Long regarded as an integral rung on the single-seater motorsport ladder, with Formula 1 stars from Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen to Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne having tasted title glory, British F3 remains a highly respected motorsport proving ground for the F1 stars of tomorrow.
After the second round at Silverstone awarded Fortec Motorsport a 1-2-3 finish, Martin Cao has a 34 point lead over Fortec Motorsport teammate Matt Rao, who now sits in second place. Sam MacLeod makes a return to the Fortec squad after sitting out Silverstone. Currently sixth in the standings on 39 points, Sam is looking to make a comeback from his retirement at the last round which prevented his clean sweep of race wins.
With only eight points between second and fifth place in the drivers’ standings, Snetterton promises some close and exciting racing from the talented F3 grid.
Meanwhile, in the Avon tires British GT Championship, bumper grids and new driver entries play a large part of the upcoming Snetterton 300 weekend.
For the team heading the GT3 championship standings, there is a driver change with Alexander Sims handing over his seat alongside Marco Attard in the No.79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 to Jonathan Cocker for this event. The team heads the GT3 standings on 52 points, with Beechdean AMR currently on 45 and AF Corse on 41.
Experienced racer Adam Carroll will be adding British GT to his existing CV line-up of Formula 3, A1GP, GP2, DTM and IndyCar by joining Gary Eastwood in the No.18 FF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia. Ian Stinton makes a welcome return to British GT, sitting in for Colin White in the No.40 IDL CWS Racing G55 Ginetta, whilst Wolfgang Reip makes his British GT debut alongside six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy in the No.80 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan GT-R.
Rory Butcher in the No.5 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage is expected to have a revised teammate announced, whilst the No.17 M-Sport Bentley Continental will see the debut of Humaid Al Masaoud alongside Steven Kane. The United Autosports No.18 Audi R8 LMS Ultra sees Iain Dockerill join Matt Bell and Richard Lyons will re-join Pasin Lathouras in the No.29 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
Brit Jade Edwards will be joining Matt Draper in the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 in their season opener. With only four races to go, this race could make or break the leading GT3 and GT4 teams.
The GT3 class leaderboard is headed by Alexander Sims and Marco Attard, with reigning class champion, Andrew Howard, currently lying 2.5 points behind in second place.
In the GT4 class, Andrew Jarman and Devon Modell lead with three points in their team TF Sport car, ahead of Ross Whylie and Jake Giddings.
Cooper Tires Motorsport Manager, Paul Coates, said, “The Snetterton 300 track is one of the fastest circuits we visit on the F3/GT calendar and is one of the most demanding on tires, so it’s a great challenge for us. The track combines two of the longest straights in UK motorsport with some very technical, twisty sections, meaning that the tires have got to stand up to just about every kind of challenge they’ll ever face – all in the space of a single lap.
“Snetterton provides the F3 drivers with some good opportunities to pass so they are likely to be quite hard on their tires as they battle it out. Meanwhile, the challenge, as ever with British GT, is to cater for a huge variety of different sportscars and driving styles.”
Qualifying for the Cooper Tires British F3 Series and Avon tires British GT Championship will take place on Saturday 21 June with one British F3 race following on Saturday afternoon. The remaining two F3 races and the two GT races will take place on Sunday 22 June.
Photo credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
