Results > July 26th 2020 - Cadwell Park

Ian Bankhurst gets his first Historic F3 Win

The Classic and Modern Race Meeting, held at Cadwell Park on 26 July 2020, hosted two rounds of the HSCC Historic Formula 3 Championship.
On the Sunday the entry had swelled to 11 cars, with some late night work on the Saturday by Ewen Sergison to bring Paul Booth’s Brabham to the event. Paul’s engine had suffered damage at Brands Hatch along with Ewen’s own. The following two weeks were spent with the Avit Team working flat out to rebuild the two cars to come to Cadwell.
Another team with a long Saturday was Mike O’Brien’s Speedsport operation. Its recently rebuilt Chevron B15 had been restored to the usual high standard of the Silverstone team, but had lacked any shakedown time. A trip to Turweston Aerodrome confirmed the car was ready to race but a trip to the rolling road produced a misfire. The electrics were stripped and replaced before the team headed to the car’s inaugural run at Cadwell Park.
Sadly, a misfire robbed the team of any running at the meeting and they left early with the F3 project sent to the backburner as they prepare for the next Historic Formula Ford races at Oulton Park.
Other casualties from qualifying were Ewen Sergison, whose car lost its oil pressure, which was traced to an oil pump. Keith Messer also retired from qualifying when an oil pipe became disconnected. This left a field of eight, who produced two exciting races. Double Champion Simon Armer (March 703) claimed pole position by an amazing six second with Paul Waine (De Sanctis) second and Andrew Tart third in the Merlyn Mk9. It looked like two easy victories were in prospect.
Whilst Simon was the winner the race margin back to Paul Waine was six seconds with Ian Bankhurst coming through in his Alexis Mk8 to take third place having shadowed Paul for much of the race.
Race two again had Armer on pole, but a cramp at the start found him slow off the line, being swamped by both Waine and Bankhurst. Waine went on to lead for eight laps as Armer and Bankhurst engaged in an enthralling battle that eventually caught Waine. On the final lap Armer made his move to reclaim the lead. He slipped past but there was a light touch that sent Simon spinning off and handed the win to an ecstatic Bankhurst, with Waine and Armer rounding out the podium. Further down the order our two HF3 newcomers Paul Booth and Simon Etherington had a race long battle, with Simon claiming the position on the final lap.

The meeting hosted the Justin Haler Trophy which is awarded on the aggregate result of the two races and gave Ian Bankhurst his second win of the meeting.

Alan Jones