James Winslow's successful season was officially brought to an end on Saturday night [13 December] when he was presented with the silverware earned in a hard-fought Australian F3 Championship campaign.

The Briton, who had hoped to be on his way to a Champ Car or sportscar seat for 2008, having taken championship honours in Asian F3 and the Renault V6 series in previous years, found himself back in the Australian series at the behest of his main sponsor but, having established himself as a frontrunner once again, was then left searching for the finance to complete his campaign after the backer went out of business.

Despite literally not knowing whether he would be able to compete at each successive round, Winslow sourced the money to progress on a race-by-race basis, and racked up the results to keep himself in contention for the crown, taking a win at each of the final five rounds to eventually claim the crown at Symmons Plain. He then returned for a second crack at the prestigious Macau Grand Prix and was in contention for a possible podium finish before being delayed by another driver's accident and then crashing out while attempting to climb back through the pack.

"It's been another great season, even if it was possibly one of the toughest of my career for reasons beyond my control," Winslow told Crash.net after collecting the Australian Drivers' Championship trophy, the CAMS Gold Star Award and the Australian F3 Championship trophy at the end-of-season prize-giving.

"Once again, I have to thank all those that supported me this year - notably NCPI Solutions, Prova, MPA Group and Driving Solutions - and thank Team BRM for giving me a car good enough to take the title. I'm looking forward to a slightly easier time of it, off-track at least, in 2009....."

Winslow has yet to reveal his plans for next season, but has already successfully tested a V8 Supercar as he explores the various options open to him.