Josh Fisher took race victory in his maiden British F3 series race by driving to glory in the National class of the series at
Donington Park this past weekend for the Trevor Powell run Pioneer-SWR squad.
Fisher started the Krypton-backed SWR Dallara-Mugen Honda F304 from class pole and kept all his division rivals at arm's length throughout the race, while his American team-mate Nick Jones charged from the back to finish sixth in class.
He had been running as high as eighth overall, but later let a couple of the faster Championship class cars through. “You've either got to let the Championship cars through so you don't waste time defending against them or, if you're lucky enough, be slightly quicker than them and stay ahead,” said Fisher.
“I had a cushion back to the next National Class car, which was good, but I didn't want the Championship cars to take me out or hold me up. Finishing over halfway up the overall field and winning my class from pole – I'm happy with that.”
Jones had a rather more eventful race than Fisher – having to start from the pit lane after a starter motor glitch and then taking a wild, unscheduled detour over the grass and gravel at the Craner Curves before securing sixth in the National field.
“Obviously the pit lane isn't where you want to be at the start because you're sitting there watching everyone going by and thinking ‘wait for me!'” he said. “Thankfully we had a safety car, which was a blessing as I was able to catch back up.
“After that I caught two people ahead of me who were slower, but it's hard because while I was following them and calculating my moves I was getting held up and everyone else was getting away. Then I had a bit of a problem at Redgate – a bit of a moment of madness – but I knew I could get past the other guy (Ricardo Teixeira) again.”
While Jones, who is in the formative stages of his European racing career, was happy just to gain more mileage and experience, Fisher was already looking towards another race victory in round two later that afternoon.
“The car is feeling good so hopefully we can win again,” he said before the race which ultimately didn't go quite as well, but still ended with a podium for Fisher with third place.
