Johnathan Hoggard says his Race Three victory was all about taking his chances after profiting from other’s mistakes at Oulton Park.
The Fortec driver took advantage of Ayrton Simmons and Clement Novolak’s troubles at Hislop’s to move from third to first in an exciting final race in Cheshire.
Hoggard says he saw it coming.
“Ayrton got a poor exit out the chicane and Clement got alongside him on the outside. I just saw what was going to happen as you can’t get two cars through there so it was a case of just letting them sort themselves out and getting around the outside of the pair of them.
“I wasn’t expecting it to happen as it did as they’re both experienced drivers so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but when you see the two of them make a mistake like that, you have to be opportunistic.”
Having started second, the British F4 graduate slipped behind Novolak on the opening lap and admits he needs to improve his starts.
“I made a mistake at the start with my clutch control, we need to come back to Snetterton stronger with that so we’re going to do lots of preparation for that. It was a case of just making no mistakes, putting people under pressure and taking opportunities that came my way, and I managed to do that.”
Hoggard is targeting more consistency this season after a run of poor form hampered his F4 championship hopes.
“I need to be more consistent with results this year, last year it was my mid season that let me down in terms of the Championship. It’s just a case of getting those good results as we have done this weekend and seeing where we are at the end of this season.”
Ayrton Simmons believes that he and his Chris Dittman Racing Team can challenge for top honours at the 2019 British F3 Championship this season.
Simmons took two podiums and a top in Race Two away from a strong weekend at Oulton Park, and was aiming higher for the rest of the season.
“We should be challenging for the top step, we had the speed in pre-season testing so I don’t see why we shouldn’t be pushing for that podium for the rest of the year and challenging for the title.
“The races last season helped me, we didn’t much testing last year,just the races but it does help to have a little bit of experience from last year to help us prepare as much as we can for this year.”
An incident midway through Race Three saw Simmons drop from the lead down to second, with the stewards demoting him to third after it was ruled that he unfairly, if unintentionally, blocked Clement Novolak after locking his brakes at Hislop’s.
Simmons held his hands up after the race and admitted an error on his part.
“I was trying to push too hard as I could tell the guys were closing in little by little each lap and I just made a small error at that first chicane. I was side by side with Novolak, we were both trying to push for the lead, we ended up going off and that’s how Hoggard passed us both.
“On the same lap I had another go around the outside at the last corner but after that it’s really hard to follow here so I didn’t have another chance.”
Multimatic Racing’s Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell took top honours in GT4 at an eventful Oulton Park.
After suffering in Race One, the Ford Mustang had no such problems in Race Two to lead well throughout the second 60 minutes, with an array of cars vying for second during the early part of the race.
Graham Johnson and Michael O’Brien in the Balfe McLaren were second overall to win a tightly contested GT4 Pro/Am category ahead of Steve McCulley and Matt George in the Invictus Jaguar Racing entry and Scott Malvern and Nick Jones’ Team Parker Racing Mercedes.
Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman in the Beechdean Aston Martin Pro/Am GT4 entry were in contention for a podium until they spun during a frenetic end to the race caused in no small part by a lapped Ben Hurst electing to race the leaders.
Hurst would hold Maxwell, Jones, McCulley, Johnson and Fletcher up for two laps as the former British F3 man who would go on to finish 14th almost had a deciding role in the destiny of the winner’s trophies late on.
Michael Broadhurst and Will Moore would both go on to have shunts at Cascades, both playing a part in bringing about Safety Cars, with TF Sport’s Tom Canning receiving a 30s stop/go penalty for causing Broadhurst’s off and Moore’s off completing a bad afternoon for Matt Nicoll-Jones’ Academy Motorsport team.
Sam De Haan took his first British GT victory in his second season with Barwell Motorsport in a dramatic Race Two at Oulton Park.
De Haan passed Abba Racing’s Richard Neary late on after applying enormous pressure on the Mercedes, who gamely hung on for long periods.
Neary, partnered with Adam Christodoulou held off Andrew Howard and Marco Sorensen’s improving Beechdean Aston Martin for second, with early pacesetters Adam Balon and Phil Keen eventually settling for fourth.
Dominic Paul was a solid fifth alongside Jack Mitchell in the Century run BMW with Bradley Ellis and Ollie Wilkinson’s Optimum Aston Martin V8 Vantage sixth.
The quick Iain Loggie and Callum Macleod RAM Racing Mercedes entry was seventh after an eventful race, the former having adventures and running wide at Cascades when running third. Race One winners Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt Junior in the #31 JRM Bentley were tenth in GT3 after late contact dropped the 2017 Champions down the order, while a frustrated Nicki Thiim and Mark Farmer retired to bring about the Safety Car just after GT3 pit stops.
Keen made much of the early running for Barwell Motorsport in a first stint punctuated by an early Safety Car as a result of a GT4 Mercedes beaching itself in the gravel at Cascades.
The Reading-based driver again made hay by pulling out a four-second lead before being held up in the now customary British GT pitlane chaos, with Neary the winner of the pitlane battles.
Thiim had climbed to fifth for Aston Martin before Farmer, who spun in Race One, repeated the trick while battling with Iain Loggie at Island Bend.
De Haan then set about Neary in relentless fashion, hustling and harrying the Mercedes before finally prising the door open at Hislop’s, the bottleneck ensuring that Howard passed Balon for fourth before Loggie’s off.
Johnathan Hoggard made it three different winners from three races at the opening weekend of the British F3 series at Oulton Park.
The Fortec driver recovered from slipping to third on the opening lap to capitalise on others mistakes and keep his head to take the spoils from Ayrton Simmons and a frustrated Clement Novolak.
Simmons had led well from the start for the first eight laps before pressure from Novolak told for the Chris Dittman Racing driver.
Simmons went off at Hislop’s before rejoining the circuit in front of Novolak’s Carlin entry, with the latter being forced to take to the grass and allow Hoggard past the pair of them with five laps remaining.
Kiern Jewiss had the best seat in the house of the top three’s squabbles but the reigning British F4 champion couldn’t land a blow on the top three despite on occasion looking the fastest of the top four contenders.
Neil Verhagen completed a solid day’s racing on Monday with fifth position ahead of Belgian drive Ulysse De Pauw.
A thrilling battle between Manuel Maldonado and Sassakorn Chaimongkol for seventh went the way of the latter, the Thai driver on more than one occasion needing to work hard to get the better of the Venezuelan cousin of former F1 driver Pastor.
Kaylen Frederick had another eventful race to drop to 14th from fourth on the grid at the first corner after a coming together with Douglas driver Jewiss. The American nursed a wounded car to 12th after suspected floor damage to complete an action-packed debut weekend for the 16-year-old Floridian.
HHC Motorsport made a dream start to life with McLaren by winning their first race as a partnership courtesy of Dean MacDonald and Callum Pointon.
The duo were a feature at the front for the entire race having managed to split the leading Multimatic Racing Ford Mustangs of Jade Buford and Scott Maxwell, the Mustangs having been dominant on Saturday during qualifying.
Maxwell and teammate Seb Priaulx would go on to have dramas that would drop the fast Ford back through the order during the second stint as Maxwell went through the gravel after contact and Priaulx spun into the wall while on a comeback trail.
Buford and Chad McCumbee also dropped back as Mustang dominance on Saturday gave way to all-conquering McLarens in Race One on Monday morning.
The Tolman McLaren of James Dorlin and Lewis Smith took second place after an eventful run that included contact with the sister car of Jordan Collard. Collard and Lewis Proctor would retire from second on the penultimate lap after catching fire while challenging for the lead.
The second HHC McLaren of Luke Williams and Tom Jackson was third ahead of McCumbee and Butford, while Josh Price and Patrick Kibble of TF Sport were the highest placed Aston Martin in fifth position.
Matt George and Steve McCulley were the Pro/Am category winners in the Invictus Racing Jaguar ahead of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher, the former passing Plowman’s Beechdean Aston Martin late on to steal victory in class.
Rick Parfitt Junior and Seb Morris took a popular victory in the opening round of the season after an eventful start to the race on JRM’s British GT debut.
Phil Keen and Adam Balon were second as the lead two cars were in a class of their own, before Bradley Ellis and Ollie Wilkinson held off Jonny Cocker and Sam De Haan.
The two Century Motorsport BMWs driven Ben Green/Dominic Paul and Jack Mitchell/Adrian Willmott were next ahead of Jonny Adam/Graham Davidson and Adam Christodoulou/Richard Neary.
Rounding out the GT3 finishers were Marco Sorensen/Andrew Howard and Nicki Thiim/Mark Farmer, the latter spinning early on and unable to make inroads thereafter.
Drama found the British GT series as early as the second lap when Ryan Ratcliffe’s optimistic move on polesitter Iain Loggie had predictable consequences, the Scotsman spun around and both drivers left out of the race after just two minutes.
A lengthy clean up operation saw the Safety Car out for over ten minutes, and Parfitt was able to capitalise on his inherited lead having passed Sam De Haan at the start.
Parfitt was able to pull out a lead of over four seconds over De Haan, who had the attentions of both Century Motorsport BMWs of Paul and Willmott to contend with for much of the opening stint.
While almost all of the GT3 competitors pitted as soon as possible, Parfitt allowed an extra lap to avoid traffic in a tight Oulton Park pit lane. De Haan found out to his cost how tight the pit lane can be, as he lost several positions when handing over to teammate Cocker.
Cocker would pressurise the Aston Martin of Bradley Ellis for the duration of their second stint for third place to little avail at a narrow and twisty Oulton Park, with third place through to ninth covered by five seconds.
After much anticipation ahead of this season, the 2019 British Superbike season got underway under steaming sunshine in Silverstone.
Starting from pole, Tarran Mackenzie had to see his McAMS Yamaha teammate, Jason O’Halloran, take the holeshot. This would set the tone for the rest of the race as far as the battle for the win was concerned.
Behind, Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati) maintained the third place with which he started the race, ahead of Josh Elliott (OMG Racing Suzuki).
Can't really put it into words right now. Just thank you to everyone who's supported me and sent me so many lovely messages! My team @OMGRacingUK have been working so hard and gave me a great bike!! To all my sponsors who have stuck with me I appreciate all the support ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Zx9NI5bxO5
There was a gap appearing behind Elliott back to fifth-placed Dan Linfoot (Santander Salt TAG Yamaha).
Then the safety car came out after an incident which could have been much worse than it was in reality. Glenn Irwin (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) collided with Dean Harrison’s Silicone Engineering Kawasaki after the TT winner crashed in Becketts. Both riders and their bikes were lying in the middle of the track, but fortunately for both of them, and everyone else, both the bikes and the riders were avoided. Ben Currie (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) also went down at the same moment, but in a separate incident.
This safety car saw the pack bunched back up after the initial laps, but the same pattern arose once the race went green again.
2019 British Superbike Championship, Ben Currie, Image courtesy of Tim Keeton/Impact Images/Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki
Both McAMS Yamahas once again took off out front, gapping Scott Redding behind quite comfortably. Josh Elliott had soon tired of the view of the Panigale V4R’s bizarre tailpipe, and made his move on Redding before ten laps were up on the change of direction from Copse to Maggots.
Elliott then caught the McAMS Yamahas, who had yet to engage each other. Once on the back of Mackenzie, Elliott looked a few times at passing the 2016 British Supersport Champion in the same place as he passed Redding, but the #95 was strong enough to hold the 2015 National Superstock 1000 Champion at bay, even when he started to drop off his teammate in the mid-race.
In response, Mackenzie made a push in the final third of the race, and started to make a gap to Elliott behind whilst simultaneously closing in on O’Halloran.
Despite being within range of the Australian for a few laps, Mackenzie did not launch an attack until Brooklands on the final lap. Mackenzie dived to the inside, and blocked his teammate’s line, forcing O’Halloran a little wide and compromising the #22’s line into Luffield. O’Halloran ran a little wide in the mid-corner, and Mackenzie emulated Jorge Lorenzo in 2013 when he was up against Marc Marquez in the MotoGP. The #95 cut to the inside, and jammed his R1 on the kerb. He had turned too tight, and had to sit up slightly to avoid touching the kerb and taking both himself and his teammate out of the race. O’Halloran didn’t budge, and the contact between the two riders sent O’Halloran – who had led the race in its entirety – tumbling.
The Australian was enraged. He had dominated the race, after dominating the weekend and preseason, yet still had victory snatched from him on his McAMS Yamaha debut by none other than his teammate.
Certainly, the competitive relationship between Mackenzie and his teammate could have gotten off to a better start, but as far as Tarran is concerned he did what was necessary to win. He had one opportunity in the race to pass his teammate for the victory, and he took it. The outcome was harsh on O’Halloran, who had ridden a fantastic race, and it was unfair on the team, who had done enough to deserve a 1-2. However, Mackenzie should not be condemned – his move was one of the rider he was at the time: one in search of his first BSB win.
O’Halloran’s retirement meant that Josh Elliott, who had dropped a way off the back of the two R1s out front in the last ten laps, took his first BSB podium in his first attempt with OMG Suzuki, who also enjoyed their first BSB top three.
Certainly, whilst the main talking point of the race was what happened between the two McAMS teammates, the most impressive performance was no doubt that of Elliott. A post-race penalty for Mackenze then promoted Elliott to first, giving both him and OMG their first win in the premier class of British motorcycle racing. The win also meant that OMG Racing Suzuki took the lead in both the teams’ championship and the riders’ standings.
The expectations will now be high for Elliott, perhaps unfairly, but nonetheless it will be interesting to see how he will react.
That demoted Mackenzie to second. He will undoubtedly be out for redemption in race two.
Scott Redding benefited from O’Halloran’s fall to claim a podium on his BSB debut. Whilst third was his result, his real position was fourth, and he will be keen to improve on that for the second race.
Luke Mossey rounded out the top four in what turned out to be a stunning race for the OMG Racing Suzuki squad, and one that would have far surpassed all their pre-race expectations. Mossey was able to break away from the battle for sixth behind in the middle of the race, and was closing on Redding ahead by the end.
That battle for sixth became a battle for the top five after O’Halloran’s fall, and it was Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing) who came out on top in that fight ahead of Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) who impressed with sixth on his debut aboard the Fireblade.
Also impressing was Luke Stapleford (Buildbase Suzuki) who took seventh on his full-time debut in BSB, and came home ahead of yet another impresser, this time in the shape of WD40 Racing’s Claudio Corti who was eighth.
Danny Buchan (FS-3 Racing) ran wide in Brooklands in the early laps, but recovered to ninth by the end to be the top Kawasaki at the flag, ahead of BSB debutant Xavi Fores (Honda Racing) who rounded out the top ten.
Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW Motorrad) seemed to retire at one point in the race as his name dropped down the timing column, but in the end he was the top BMW in eleventh, ahead of impressive rookie Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular and Reserves Kawasaki) in twelfth, Dan Linfoot in thirteenth, Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing) and Keith Farmer (Tyco BMW Motorrad) who rounded out the points in fifteenth.
As well as the initial wave of retirements in the initial stages of the race, James Ellison (Smiths Racing), Shaun Winfield (Santander Salt TAG Racing) and Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati) all retired.
Kaylen Frederick was the victor in British F3’s second race of the weekend to make amends for a difficult first race on Saturday.
The Carlin driver had started pole for Race One, but a series of unfortunate events saw the American finish 13th.
A start not without incident saw Hampus Ericsson and Kris Wright come to blows at Shell Oils hairpin, the American retiring on the spot as he hit the wall, while the Swede made it back to the pitlane, with Ayrton Simmons retiring late on with technical issues.
Despite those incident, the Safety Car was not deployed and the American duo of Frederick and Verhagen were able to pull away from Maldonado, who had to work hard to keep Jewiss at bay early in the race.
There were no such issues in Race Two as the 16-year-old simply drove away from compatriot Neil Verhagen and the rest of the field, with Kiern Jewiss and Manuel Maldonado in a race-long scrap for third that eventually went the way of the Venezuelan.
Sassakorn Chaimongkol was next on the road but a 10s penalty for a jump start dropped the Thai driver to 13th, with Josh Mason holding almost the rest of the entire field up to take fifth, with Race One winner Clement Novolak, Ulysse De Pauw, Johnathan Hoggard and Nazim Azman.
Ben Pedersen, Lucas Petersson and Pavan Ravishankar rounded off the finishers ahead of Chaimongkol.
With live coverage finally in our neck of the woods, available on YouTube rather than a suspect stream, there’s every reason to be watching Super Formula this season. And if today’s first round at Suzuka, one of the all-time great Grand Prix circuits, was anything to go by, with Nick Cassidy storming through the field to win and attrition aplenty, it’ll be worth getting into.
The race started with Tadasuke Makino, formerly of F2, cementing his lead ahead of the battling Alex Palou. The opening laps remained fairly static, with few successful moves until Lap 7, when Cassidy, who qualified 12th, pitted for soft tyres. This would turn out to be a masterstroke, as only a few laps later, both 18 year old debutant Tristan Charpentier and stalwart Ryo Hirakawa went off at 130R and into the barriers, bringing out the first safety car.
This was where the madness kicked in. Palou, who had been straining to get past Makino at the start, was slapped with a drive-through penalty and served it just before the Safety Car was deployed, but the field bunching up did alleviate some of the damage. Dan Ticktum was slow to get into his pit box due to his Mugen team double-stacking, and a mechanic even acrobatically jumped over Cassidy’s car to change the wheels as quickly as possible.
The famous Super Formula pitstop…watch the front tyre changer closely.
Yuhi Sekiguchi’s car appeared to momentarily stop in the pitlane before he was able to get it going, but a lap later he pulled back into the pits and became the third of what would turn out to be a long list of retirees. Meanwhile, Cassidy was on the charge, his perfectly-timed pitstop jumping him up into 5th before he dispatched first Makino then Yuji Kunimoto to place himself 3rd. Shortly after, the safety car was out again: Kazuki Nakajima beached his TOM’S Toyota into the Degner 1 gravel, with a distracted Harrison Newey then following him into retirement at Degner 2.
Five retirements within 15 laps just signals the frantic drama Super Formula is good for, and a second safety car three laps later when Hiroaki Ishiura pulled into the pits and Palou’s machine gave up on him only furthered that point. From then on, Cassidy was into a prime position to win a race which looked for all the world yesterday evening to be an exercise in damage limitation. Kamui Kobayashi, the on-track leader, would have to pit again to use a different compound.
A third safety car was brought out this time by Makino, who’s car suffered a right-rear wheel nut failure and sent him into the gravel beside the run up to 130R. Makino would prove, finally, to be the last of the retirements, but there were still twists and turns up the road with Kobayashi trying to find the perfect slot to pit in, Cassidy managing to keep within arms’ reach, and the others jostling for podium/lower positions. Ticktum began to fall down the field, his airbox lighting glowing red (this signals a lack of attack mode – versus green for full, and blue for halfway used) and tyres appearing to be spent.
The final laps proved to be the killer for Kobayashi’s hopes of a strong finish. The late Safety Cars prevented the ex-Sauber F1 driver from banking a good result on a happy hunting ground for him, finishing tenth. Cassidy took the on-track lead on the final lap, and Kenta Yamashita was kept at bay in the end by Naoki Yamamoto, last season’s title winner. Cassidy lost that title by a point, but already, he’s taken first blood and cemented a troubling marker for his rivals.
