Rodin Carlin’s John Bennett claimed his first GB3 Championship race victory at a soaking wet Silverstone Grand Prix circuit this afternoon.
The British driver started from pole position, inherited after Tymek Kucharczyk’s car was disqualified after qualifying, and Bennett capitalised to lead every lap despite the tricky conditions.
Bennett finished less than a second ahead of JHR’s championship leader Joseph Loake, who climbed from fourth to second after a fast start, with his teammate Matthew Rees completing the podium form fifth on the grid.
Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Alex Dunne started second but made a slow start and finished fourth ahead of Elite’s McKenzy Cresswell with Bennett’s teammate Callum Voisin completing the top-six.
Voisin beat Chris Dittmann Racing’s Zak Taylor to the result, after passing his fellow Brit on lap seven, but Taylor still climbed from ninth on the grid to seventh.
Voisin’s teammate Costa Toparis finished sixth on the road but lost two spots due to a five second track limit penalty, with James Hedley (Arden VRD) and David Morales (JHR) completing the top-10.
Bennett made a good start from his inherited pole position, though Loake from fourth had an even better one and challenged at Copse, with Bennett just holding him off.
Bennett held a lead of half a second after the first lap, with Loake up in second, while further back, Kucharczyk had gained several spots from his demoted 24th on the grid, but spun exiting Aintree and plummeted back down the order to 25th.
Bennett increased his lead to 0.7 seconds after the second lap and grew that to 1.1 seconds on the third tour. By the midpoint of the race, the margin extended to two seconds but next time around Loake trimmed off six tenths as he recorded the fastest lap of the race at that point. Another fastest lap on the seventh circulation closed the gap down to 1.2 seconds and the lead was trimmed big time ending the penultimate lap as Bennett ran wide exiting Luffield.
Crossing the line with just seconds remaining of the allotted 20-minute distance, Bennett hung on to take a breakthrough win in treacherous conditions, with Loake settling for second and 0.9s away from victory. Kucharczyk fought his way up to 14th despite his opening lap drama.
Bennett has the chance to make it two from two, as he starts on pole for the second race of the weekend, scheduled for 10.02 on Sunday morning.
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Silverstone race one provisional result:
1. John Bennett, Rodin Carlin, 10 Laps
2. Joseph Loake, JHR Developments, +0.907
3. Matthew Rees, JHR Developments, +3.625
4. Alex Dunne, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +4.828
5. McKenzy Cresswell, Elite Motorsport, +11.619
6. Callum Voisin, Rodin Carlin, +12.247
7. Zak Taylor, Chris Dittmann Racing. +14.171
8. Costa Toparis, Rodin Carlin, +14.537
9. James Hedley, Arden VRD, +16.489
10. David Morales, JHR Developments, +21.743
11. Jarrod Waberski, Fortec Motorsport, +24.643
12. Noah Ping, Arden VRD, +29.485
13. Max Esterson, Fortec Motorsport, +31.625
14. Tymek Kucharczyk, Douglas Motorsport, +35.238
15. Oliver Stewart, Elite Motorsport, +37.014
16. Lucas Staico, Douglas Motorsport, +39.488
17. Gerrard Xie, Hillspeed, +44.786
18. Edward Pearson, Fortec Motorsport, +45.122
19. Arthur Rogeon, Chris Dittmann Racing, +46.227
20. Daniel Mavlyutov, Hillspeed, +50.502
21. Michael Shin, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +50.819
22. Ayato Iwasaki, Elite Motorsport, +52.039
23. Shawn Rashid, Douglas Motorsport, +1m14.591
DNF. Nico Christodoulou, Arden VRD
DNF. Souta Arao, Hitech Pulse-Eight