Such was the lack of adhesion at this point of the race, grass tracking for many drivers became the order of the day. Dan Clarke was the trend-setter down towards the Complex, with a move across the grass which would later be emulated by Charlie Hollings and Ryan Lewis. Whilst Clarke and Lewis would return to the track, Lewis after contact with the tyres, Hollings’ race was done.
Ryan’s return to the track saw the reigning British F3 Scholarship class champion make quite possibly the passing move of the weekend as he went round the outside of a dicing Jonathan Kennard and Keiko Ihara around the outside at Clerveaux and into Hawthorn.
That same lap, Dan Clarke in the Double R Dallara set the fastest speed on the straight up to Tower, but his failure to make the corner collected double
Croft winner in 2004, Danilo Dirani, putting both out of the race.
With the stranded car tally ever increasing, the safety car took to the track for the various vehicle recovery vehicles of Fred Henderson to clear up some of the rather expensive off-track vehicular debris. All Conway’s good work at the head of the field to make up a gap of some five seconds plus was seemingly undone, until the cars lined-up behind the safety Audi, until it was realised that the Fortec driver had a safety buffer behind Ricardo Texeira’s Carlin National car.
Marko Asmer, second in the race standings, but third behind the safety car on track, had rather too much work to do getting past Angolan Texeira’s car and after the first lap back under green flag conditions, Conway was 2.5 seconds to the good.
As Conway made his getaway good he set the race’s fastest lap on the sixteenth lap, and was given the chequered flag a lap early to take his first win in the British F3 International series.
