VICTORY AT LAST

After a straight 5 out of 5 in terms of podium finishes, Karline Stala finally managed to win!!!

The third round of the championship was held at Dijon, France. This circuit is probably best known for one the most famous battles ever fought out in the history of F1 between Gilles Villeneuve in the Ferrari and René Arnoux in the Reanault.

With 2 sessions of one hour of free prctice the drivers got the opportunity to learn the circuit on Friday prior to Saturday qualifying.

QUALIFYING

Karline again did well to get P2 after a sensible build up. However, a missed gear change in the final lap caused some anxiety as the engine needed to be changed before second qualifying.

Jack Piper did well to qualify P11 and continued to steadily reduce the gap to the rest of the field.

It was important to get Karline out in the second session which as expected turned out to be a bit slower than the morning session in order to make sure everything was ok with the new engine.

In this session Jack once again reduced his lap times and got to within 1.5 sec. off the quickest times in this session. Jack's continued progress is important to and appreciated by everybody involved with the team.

RACES

Race 1

Karline got a good start and thaught about a move on pole-sitter Cox at the first corner but wisely decided not to as the circuit was still pretty damp on the outside of the track. So she settled in in P2. In the first 4 or 5 laps she had difficulties trying not to lose too much time on the ever fast starting Cox. But as normal, at about mid-race she picked up the pace whereas Cox started to lose some pace and again she was right under his gear-box in the last couple of laps. Unfortunately Karline made a small mistake in the final corner which leads onto the long straight and so Sechaelariu got by reletively easily. Very unfortunate as a win was definitely possible but nevertheless yet another podium finish.

Jack had a bad start but recovered nicely and got by his direct opponent, setting some really encouraging lap times at about mid-race.

Race 2

Victory at last! Karline was ready for this one - we made sure she was...- and from her P4 starting position immediately shot into second place after the first turn. In the opening lap she even got P1 with a brilliant move on leader De Saeger. In the first few laps the field stayed together nicely and everybody was fighting everobody on the long pit straight. Cox swiftly moved up to P2 but as De Saeger would not let him go this gave Karline the small break she needed. She slowly started to move away from the rest of the field to take her first win by about 3 seconds.

Jack also had a very good race and got by some more cars in front of him to finish P8. He has now well and truly arrived in mid-field. With some more miles to be put under his belt in the summer months the aim has to be to qualify top-6 at the next round.