Elsewhere, Menu Motorsports’ Stephen Jelley was not having a good day as he failed to come to terms with car and circuit in the difficult conditions, as he span coming into the Complex, but managed to avoid hitting anything and carried on with the race.
Despite the difficult conditions, and the reappearance of yet more rain, the driving was far more measured than the first race of the day, and most drivers concurred that staying on the black stuff was infinitely preferable to trying the grass when considering traction issues.
Coming into the
Croft round, Danilo Dirani had a healthy lead atop the championship standings, and the added bonus of returning as the reigning Croft F3 champion after taking a double victory in the series last season. After this Croft 2005 was a real slap in the face for the likeable Brazilian, and once more he was off at Tower, this time with Marko Asmer as his partner as the Estonian tried to take Dirani’s eighth place. Both drivers returned to the track, Asmer in sixteenth, Dirani even further back.
Whilst this was happening, Parente was a happy Portuguese in the lead, and set the then race’s fastest lap on his third tour stretching his lead from Conway to 1.6 seconds. Outlining the difficulties of the conditions however, the gap was cut in two the next time they passed the lap ending timing beam, with Conway lowering the fastest lap marker, albeit only briefly before a hard charging Dan Clarke took that mantle.
The Double R Racing driver was once again on a charge in the slippery conditions, a run wide at the Chicane on the first lap had meant he had dropped back down the field, but Clarke was working hard, and successfully at making the places back.
Clarke wasn’t the only driver to make a mistake in the race, and all Conway’s hard work to close the gap to Parente was undone with a mistake by the Fortec man at Tower as the returning rainfall increased, meant that Christian Bakkerud was past after some gentle interaction between Bakkerud’s Avons and Conway’s front wing endplate.
