After the fun-filled but race sparse visit to the Belgian circuit of Spa Francorchamps, the British F3 International series this weekend heads to the north eastern UK circuit of
Croft.
With the weather at the challenging Croft circuit predicted as being cloud with sunny intervals, and the altitude being far lower than the Belgian track, it's unlikely we'll see fog cancelled races this weekend in the, what Raikkonen Robertson Racing describe, with tongue in cheek, as ‘the noted tropical paradise of Croft.'
Located in the north east of England, the 2.1 mile circuit is an exhilarating challenge for drivers, especially after the back straight down to Tower Bend and out through the Jim Clarke Esses, through Barcroft to Sunny.
The challenge of the track is compounded by the difficulty of overtaking. Whilst saloon car drivers can resort to learning on their rivals, it's not quite as simple in open wheelers where contact all too often gets far more messy.
The season opening races at
Donington Park, and thus far the only races this season after the cancellation of the Spa races due to fog, both went the way of Danilo Dirani, with a very strong debut for the new Lola chassis.
Dirani, like many other drivers in the field, has already tested at the Croft track and things went well there, meaning the Brazilian should look stronger than he did in qualifying at Spa, where he put in the ninth fastest time in both sessions.
“Spa was a proper circuit to test the car, with big corners, long run corners and we learned a lot about the car, we just need more days testing,” said current championship points leader, Dirani. “We know that we are good in circuits like Croft and Donington we have a good setup.“
Second in the points at the moment is Fortec's Mike Conway, who was another driver to find Spa challenging, posting the eighth and ninth fastest times in his qualifying runs there. Croft is likely to be a different matter however, and expect the well-tested Conway to be at the thick end of the action.
