GPC FR2000 International Championship - Event 3 - Silverstone

[Jaap Wagenvoort]

August 19th, 2006. The GPChampionship.com FR2000 International Championship moves to Silverstone, Great Britain, for rounds 5 and 6 of the 10-round 2006.1 season. Wagenvoort retired at Zandvoort after leading the race, which enabled Juha Pyy to score a very surprising win that immediately saw him gaining the attention of lastplace.com team management.

Just like in the first two events, Pre-Qualifying was extremely close and exciting. Drama got even worse after 3 cars out of the top 15 turned out to be under investigation by the GPChampionship.com officials. Scrutineering lead to two drivers being disqualified from PQ for breaking the corner cutting rule. The third driver got an official warning from the stewards because of submitting his data late to the officials.

Qualifying

With two lucky losers (P16: Sam Guest & P17: Daniel Pettit) aboard, the drivers all lined up at 22:45CEST in the Silverstone paddock. All the pitcrews were ready: this was the moment they all worked hard for in Pre-Qualifying. Now the drivers had to show what they have.

As soon as Qualifying started, the engines were started and the cars rolled out of their boxes. Wagenvoort was the first on-track and immediately set a quick laptime as he was the fastest after the first stint by everyone. Trouble for Guest who crashed out on his first run and had to go back to the pit to have the damage being repaired.

The second run. Phil Woodward, after two P2's in the previous two Qualifyings, was determined to finally collect his first pole-position. He beat Wagenvoort's time by 1 tenth. Wagenvoort was on-track at this moment. A repeat of the scenarios of Aviano & Zandvoort when Wagenvoort took pole-position back in the final minutes. Not this time. Wagenvoort's 2nd lap was a few thousands slower and no one else could challenge the times of the front runners.

The first official pole-position for Woodward and the last-place.com team and best of all: in their homerace. Wagenvoort took 2nd place and Almeida qualified in 3rd place with lastplace new signing Pyy taking 4th on the grid. Terrible luck for Whitehead and Brown who both failed to record any laptime during the 15 minute session.

Race 5

Just past 23:00CEST and 13 FR2.0 cars revved their engines in anticipation for the start of the 5th race of the season. The red lights went out and the cars blasted from their positions. Wagenvoort had a great start and immediately put his car besides the car of Woodward. The two went into Copse corner besides each other. Woodward drifted a bit to the outside of the corner and he touched the right-front of Wagenvoort's #4 car. The FWN was immediately pushed besides the track and disappeared in a big cloud of dust. Race over for Wagenvoort and suspension damage for Woodward who could stay in the lead of the race.

Lap 1 also saw Sam Guest retiring from the race after a crash that ended in the wall. On lap 2, Stuart Whitehead and Richard Hooper had to retire after both cars collided.

In the meanwhile, Daniel Almeida tried to put pressure on Woodward in the lead, but Almeida had to check his mirrors as Juha Pyy was putting pressure as well. Pyy almost lost his car with 3 laps to go and Almeida could relax, even though he could no longer treathen Woodward for the win. Dahlberg took advantage of Pyy's trouble and move to 3rd.

After 8 laps, Woodward crossed start/finish to take his 1st win in FR2000IC even though the turn 1 incident left its marks. Still though, 17 points gained on Wagenvoort who also had to start from the back of the grid in Race 2. Almeida took his 4th podium finish of the season and scored important points. Dahlberg took an important podium for RSC Motorsports. Pyy took 4th, ahead of Stan Manton who drove to an impressive 5th place in front of lucky loser Daniel Pettit who was the final point scorer in Race 5.

Race 6

Roughly 15 minutes after the end of Race 5, the paddock prepared for the 2nd race of the evening. Whereas Race 5 was over 8 laps, Race 6 saw the drivers having to complete 16 laps.

Woodward, fresh from his first win, could also start Race 6 on pole-position, joined on the front row by Almeida. As the lights went green, Woodward held on to the lead and Almeida stayed in 2nd place. Wagenvoort blasted away from his grid position to swap 11th for 5th place on lap 1.

Almeida had a bit of trouble on cold tyres in the Esses and saw Juha Pyy being all over him. Pyy passed Almeida going into Stowe. Almeida didn't give up though and immediate put pressure on Pyy again.

Two laps later, Almeida passed Pyy again. Pyy tried to immediately fight back, but did not see the car of Wagenvoort, who had passed Dahlberg in the meanwhile, and both cars collided. Both cars suffered major suspension damage. Pyy saw Dalhberg passing him and Wagenvoort dropped down to 5th place and eventually 6th place.

Up in front, Woodward took advantage of the drivers who were battling each other behind him. He quickly developed a safe lead to the now 2nd placed Almeida. Dahlberg moved up to 3rd whereas Pyy could hold on to 4th place. Andy Hole, who made it into the official event for the first time, had a fantastic 2nd race as he moved his way up to 5th.

Behind Wagenvoort, Richard Hooper was improving upon his dramatic first race and he looked set to score some points again. However, towards the end of the race he got under pressure from Stuart Whitehead. Behind them, the likes of Daniel Pettit, Chris Browne and Stan Manton were fighting for the final point positions.

No problems whatsoever for woodward as he scored a relatively easy win, moving him into the lead of the championship. Almeida finished 2nd to also pass Wagenvoort in the standings. Dahlberg took yet another podium as RSC Motorsports takes an incredible lead in the Constructors Championship. Pyy took 4th, Hole 5th and Wagenvoort struggled home in 6th to conclude a dramatic event in which he lost the championship and in which FWN lost the lead in the Constructors Championship.

A new record total of 12 drivers completed all 16 laps in the feature race which again was full of action.

Links

Pre-Qualifying Result

Race 5 Result

Race 5 Lapchart

Race 5 Driver Comments

Race 6 Result

Race 6 Lapchart

Race 6 Driver Comments

Driver Championship Standings

Team Championship Standings

6 out of 10 rounds completed. Woodward won his first two races in the championship and with the results of Wagenvoort immediately moves into the lead of the Drivers Championship. Surely, Wagenvoort will be looking for better results at Prato where the next two rounds will be happening at August 26th on the Full GP layout. Again a whole new type of track. Pre-Qualifying for this event already starts on Wednesday. It will be exciting to see how the fight between the championship leaders will continue and to see which drivers will make it into the eagerly wanted top 15 in Pre-Qualifying. Follow it all live on GPChampionship.com!