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County Durham’s fast female does the double….again!
Amanda Whitaker took two class victories once again racing at Brands Hatch in the HSCC Summer Festival. The event was held on the fantastic full Grand Prix circuit, the rarely used classic layout where only the brave are quick!
Amanda was testing a new setup on the Chevron B34 she drives, but despite this - and not having driven the circuit since she raced in Formula Vauxhall in 1994 – she qualified 2nd in class, only 3 tenths of a second away from pole position man Sandy Watson.
In Saturday’s first race, Amanda bogged down off the line at the start, but quickly got into the groove and at the end of the first lap, was running 2nd behind class leader and Silverstone double winner Chris Sharples in his Chevron B29. Amanda was running close with Sharples who then made a mistake with his gear change into Druids hairpin on lap 2 which spun him into another competitor and out of the race. This left Amanda with a clear lead over Sandy Watson which she held until the end, finishing a creditable 10th overall out of a nearly 30 strong entry.
In Sunday’s race, Amanda made a good getaway and a few demon manoeuvres on the opening lap gained her 6 overall places and left her leading her class. She battled hard with the higher powered 2 litre cars throughout the race whilst also keeping a good class lead. An incident near the end of the race bought out the safety car, but on the restart a strong challenge came from Chris Sharples who set fastest lap chasing Amanda. However, the canny Durham lass held her nerve – and her lead – to win her class by 3 seconds by the end of the race and 9th overall.
“It was a sweet victory and nice to beat Chris fair & square this time! The race restart was a bit hectic but everything went to plan & this still keeps me the lead of the championship outright, so I’m happy.” said Amanda “I had a fantastic weekend thanks to the all team at Chevron and to Oskar Christen.”.
The European Formula 2 series enjoyed their strongest grid to date and produced a great spectacle with battles right through the field. Both races were won outright by Frenchman Philip Harper in his 2.0i litre Ralt RT1, but only after a close battle with star driver Martin Stretton from the UK, who retired from the lead both on Saturday & Sunday with mechanical failure on his 1.6i litre March 712.
The next round of the series is at The Nurburgring in Germany in 3 weeks time.
For more information on the series she races in visit www.EuropeanF2.com |
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