James Winslow continues to overcome the odds to maintain his challenge for the Kumho Tyres Australian F3 title, winning at Phillip Island despite not knowing he'd be on the grid until the day before the meeting.
The Briton had his 2008 campaign thrown into disarray following the collapse of a major backer, and has been chasing the funding to compete ever since. Despite the setback, however, Winslow has been at the forefront of the Australian F3 series since the start of the season, and moved back into second place overall after a typically battling Phillip Island performance.
That ‘battle' now starts well before the weekend as Winslow negotiates with teams for a ride, and he duly missed the vital pre-weekend test at Phillip Island as a result of his slim budget. A last-minute deal was then struck with Team BRM – with which he started the year - on Thursday, after track day and racing school experts Driving Solutions stepped in to save his championship aspirations.
Despite driving his third different car this season, and a new Dallara to boot, Winslow showed his talent by settling in immediately, posting the fastest time of the wet opening practice session by seven-tenths of a second. As the weather continued to affect proceedings into qualifying, he took pole position for race two, having missed a dry track run in the first session.
Although starting race one from further back on the grid than he would have liked, Winslow went from sixth to second in the space of two laps, and continued to head the pack when an overly-ambitious Neil McFadyen lost control under braking for the Honda hairpin and collided with the BRM car, forcing it into the gravel and out of the race.
Starting from pole in race two at least meant that the Briton had a chance to avoid any incidents, and he captitalised on the advantage by leading from lights to flag. The only hiccup in his progress came during an early safety car period, when two of his closest pursuers overtook the BRM car before the line at the restart – errors for which both were penalised.
![James Winslow - Team BRM [pic credit: RaceTorque/Klynsmith]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/455293.jpg)
