Samy Reid turned into a giant-killer during the final round of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship after taking on - and beating people - in newer machinery on only her second F3 start.
The 20-year-old was again driving a ‘96-spec Trophy Class Dallara for Scud Racing and posted eye-opening performances in both qualifying and the races that upset many more experienced drivers in later model cars.
With a performance that opened the eyes of the paddock to her capabilities, Reid qualified her car under half a second behind Chris Barry's National Class championship-winning Dallara in a difficult wet / dry qualifying session Saturday morning.
It was only a last-minute lap from Barry that elevated him above Reid in a performance that saw her out qualify all of the other National and Trophy class cars.
In the dry second session she qualified on pole for the Trophy class and again just a few tenths behind the National Class cars.
In race one – after setting her best lap of the weekend – she won her first Trophy class battle and finished second of all the Trophy / National cars – despite suffering a broken rear wing just a few laps from home.
A race-long duel that gave her close-quarters wings-and-slicks racing experience with veteran Rod Anderson gave her second in class for race two and gave every indication that should she be given the opportunity, Samantha Reid will be a name to watch in F3 circles in the near future.
Reid said that it was a good opportunity to show her stuff with a strong performance at the demanding Sydney track.
”Oran Park is a technically challenging circuit, one of the toughest in Australia, but we had a successful test at Winton leading up to the race and I was confident of a result in the '96 car,” she explained. ”The test gave me a chance to get more confidence in the car and develop my knowledge of its setup. It was also great to have the F3 champion Tim Macrow in the team to give me some tips and feedback.
”I felt a lot more comfortable in the car and was able to go better because of it.”
Reid put that added experience to the test in the first race after a rear wing suddenly failed with a few laps remaining.
“Towards the end of the race the car suddenly felt like it had lost all of its' rear grip,” she explained. ”I was struggling to keep the car on track and had some moments through (the high speed) turn one. I didn't know what was happening on track but when I got back to parc ferme' after the race it all made sense.
![Samy Reid - Scud Racing [Pic credit: Race Torque Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/396317.jpg)
