Taylor scores twice at Castle Combe.

Mark Taylor had a strong weekend of consolidation in the latest round of the British Formula Three Championship at Castle Combe to post sixth and fourth place finishes.

Taylor's Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda, as a result, stays well in contention for second place in the championship, just 24 points behind current runner-up Bruce Jouanny with 20 available for a win.

As ever qualifying was extremely close, Taylor taking sixth place on the grid for race one and following that up with eighth in the line-up for the second race - a disappointing position, but only 0.4 seconds from pole position.

"In first qualifying the car felt good and I was only losing out a little bit in a couple of places to [pole position man] James Courtney," said Taylor. "Then in second qualifying I had to come in halfway through because I had a small problem with the car."

In race one Taylor lost a place at the green lights to fast-starting Michael Keohane and jump-starting teammate Richard Antinucci, but gained one on Renault Formula One prot?g? Fabio Carbone at the
same time.

When Antinucci took a stop-go penalty, Taylor moved back up to sixth and stayed hard on the heels of Keohane for the rest of the race. "I was quicker than him but couldn't get past. He was quicker down the straight and I couldn't get close enough through the corners to challenge."

In the second race a huge four-car incident ahead of him forced Taylor to overshoot the Esses on the first lap, and when he rejoined he was sixth, behind Scholarship Class leader Stephen Colbert. Taylor moved up to fifth when Courtney was penalised for a false start, but was to sit frustratedly behind Colbert until lap 12, when the Irishman made a mistake.

Unfortunately, the now fourth-placed Taylor didn't have enough time to catch Jouanny in third. "Colbert proceeded to block me everywhere. I was about a second quicker than him and if I'd passed him earlier I could have got past Jouanny."

John Booth - Team Owner - concluded: "A good bagful of points and very strong finishes. We all know Mark can race as well as anyone and once again he has been strong in the races."

Taylor now heads to Brands Hatch this coming weekend. "We've found a balance on the car and we can work from here, especially on home ground at Brands!"