AUSF3: Winton: Series qualifying report

THE TWO MEN AT THE TOP CONTINUE THEIR F3 QUALIFYING DOMINANCE AT WINTON

JUST TWO MEN have dominated qualifying throughout the Formula 3 Australian Drivers championship for the CAMS Gold Star this year - and that trend has continued today following qualifying at Winton Motor raceway in Victoria.

Those two, series leader Joey Foster and second-placed Tim Macrow, each took a pole position today and each scored one bonus point plus a $200 bonus thanks to Pole award sponsor Yorkshire Investments.

Scud Racing driver Tim Macrow took pole for race one in a thrilling shootout held on a drying circuit.

Leaving his run to the last few moments of the session, Macrow bumped Foster back to second after the flag and, when the Team BRM driver was unable to respond on his final lap, took his third consecutive and twelfth career Formula 3 pole position.

"We're really pleased, obviously," Said Macrow.

"Given we didn't test here earlier in the week we have been making a few educated guesses with setup and making several changes at once - and fortunately it worked for us really well. The team have done a fantastic job and the car feels excellent in the wet and the dry so tomorrow (Raceday) is looking pretty good.

"We need to keep putting the pressure on Joey to try and close the lead down as we go into the second half of the year."

Foster will start race one (14 laps) from second, one ahead of Mat Sofi (AmPro tools Dallara) and Ben Crighton (TanderSport).

The second session was held in drier conditions with the track getting progressively quicker throughout the 20 minutes.

With five minutes remaining Foster banked a strong 1m18.0851s lap before light rain began to fall which ended the charge of Macrow (2nd), Crighton (3rd) and Sofi (4th) who had all shown promise throughout the session.

Foster's fifth pole of the year took his earnings from Qualifying to the $1000 mark for the year to date, the Cornwall driver much more pleased with his second-session efforts.

"It's nice to be back on pole," Foster said after ceding a run of three pole positions to his nearest rival.

"The car has been pretty good but we were very disappointed to miss out on the race one pole because we thought we went faster than that. So it was good to bounce back in qualifying two and get another pole position, another point, and another pole award."

Tom Tweedie topped the National Class on both occasions today, ahead of Jesse Wakeman, Maher Algadri and Rod Anderson.

Tomorrow's two 14-lap races will be the first for Australia's premier Open wheel championship at the 3.0km Winton layout since 2004, the lap record currently being held by V8 Supercar's latest winner, 2003 champion Michael Caruso.

This weekends' round marks the half way point of the championship, running this weekend with the Shannons Nationals.

-credit: formula3.com.au