Satisfying Silverstone test for Idafar.

Having picked up his third podium finish of the 2011 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series at Donington Park over the weekend, Menasheh Idafar headed to Silverstone for the last officially timed session of the season.

With a week and a half to go before the season finale at the British Grand Prix venue, the twenty year old lapped the 3.66 Mile Northamptonshire circuit in a 1m55.699s, a time which left him eleventh fastest overall.

Idafar completed the opening run of the day with a 1m56.873s before improving to a 1m56.387s in the second session of the day. It was the third session of the day which saw the T-Sport driver set his fastest time.

Finishing within 0.8s of the pace setter for the session, Champion Felipe Nasr, his fastest time of the day meant that he finished eleventh fastest overall and within 1.2s of Kevin Magnussen with all the times combined.

“I was pretty happy with the last session, seventh wasn’t bad”, said the Dallara-Volkswagen racer, “I had too much oversteer in the beginning but we got that sorted out for the last run. We started too much on the back-foot I guess but caught up well considering that.”

The final three rounds of the 2011 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series take place at Silverstone GP over the 8/9 October, alongside the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Friday, 7 October will see pre-event testing take place before qualifying and round twenty eight, which take place on Saturday, 8 October. Qualifying will run at 10.25 while the first race of the weekend starts at 14.35. Sunday sees the final two rounds of the season, which are due to get underway at 10.15 and 16.10.

Brands Hatch to see more records broken?

Six months have gone by since the CERTINA Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship got underway for 2011 on the Indy configuration and the penultimate round of the season heads back to the Kent circuit but this time, racing on the famous Grand Prix circuit.

Rockingham saw a new winner crowned in the series as Oliver Rowland secured his first victory in the opening race of the weekend which he backed up with a second place finish in the second race of the weekend. He dedicated his first win in the series to the late Martin Hines.

For his Fortec Motorsport team-mate Alex Lynn, the weekend was a mixture of highs and lows. The Essex teenager, who turned eighteen at Rockingham, was unable to celebrate a double victory due to a spin in the opening race which meant he finished tenth. He secured his eleventh victory of the season in the second encounter and in the process, equalled the record of James Matthews from seventeen years ago.

“Brands Hatch is my favourite circuit on the calendar,” says Lynn, who has the chance to set a new record at Brands, with Matthews due to be in attendance. “The Grand Prix layout is amazing and it will be a real pleasure to get the chance to race on it. I’m feeling very confident about the championship but I’m not going to get caught up in the mathematical side of it all, I’m just going to go out there and keep outscoring Tio as I know that is what I need to do. It would also be nice to keep on winning races in the process.”

Lynn’s closest challenger is Tio Ellinas. He was able to take advantage of the problems which Lynn found himself in during the opening round at Rockingham by securing a podium finish before securing his thirteenth podium finish of the season in the afternoon race. His consistency has been the key to his title charge as he hopes to beat Lynn to the crown.

“I am 34 points behind Alex but it’s still possible to go for the title,” says Ellinas. “I really like Brands GP and Silverstone National so we will try very hard in all of the final four races. I won at Brands GP last year in Formula Ford so I know what it takes to have success there.”

Rockingham also saw the best result of the season for Salisbury’s Dan Wells, who secured a fourth place finish during round fifteen and the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit has special memories for Wells: “Brands Hatch Grand Prix is a very good circuit and actually where I made my debut at in the FF1600 last year,” said Wells. “It’s got a really good flow to it and when you get out onto the back section there is no run-off whatsoever, which makes it a really exhilarating circuit to drive. I think that we are heading for a good positive end to the season.”

Jordan King heads to Brands Hatch on the back of a triple podium finish at Monza during the final rounds of the 2011 Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, where he recorded a second place finish and a brace of third place finishes and he will hope to replicate those results at Brands Hatch.

The on track action gets underway at 9.25 Saturday Morning for the first of two qualifying sessions, the second of which takes place at 14.30. Rounds seventeen and eighteen will both be run Sunday, 2 October at 10.00 and 15.35.

Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit plays host to five way Clio Cup battle.

Five drivers head to Brands Hatch for the season finale of the 2011 AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK, all harbouring aims, ambitions and dreams of securing the trophy at the end of rounds fifteen and sixteen this weekend, 1^st/2^nd October.

Heading to Kent, the current Championship leader is Aron Smith in the Team Pyro car but his lead is only slender, as local driver James Dixon for Total Control Racing is right on his tail. The other two main contenders are double Champion Paul Rivett for Lumison BlueSquare Data/Stancome Vehicle Engineering and Westbourne Motorsport’s James Colburn.

Smith made his British Touring Car Championship debut at Knockhill and he is hoping that the experiences he gained north of the border will help him secure the title.

“This is the first time that I have led the championship this year so I am feeling very confident,” says Smith. “I’m not going to get drawn into thinking too much about the title as that messes with your head, I just know that I have to stay ahead of my rivals. I think that the nature of the track works in my favour, as I like to be more aggressive when I drive. I’m confident that we can go out there and get some good results.”

Maidstone’s Dixon heads to his local circuit with other ideas. He has won four races to date in the 2011 Clio Cup, of which one was on the Indy circuit at Brands and he will look to replicate that victory out on the Grand Prix loop.

“I’m feeling very confident,” says Dixon, who works as a driver instructor at the track. “It’s my home circuit and I have always gone well at Brands, I think that we can get some good results there and obviously we need to because I want to win the championship. The pressure is on us but I think that we are looking very good.”

Rivett is hoping to use his wealth of experience to help secure him his third Clio Cup crown. He heads to Brands Hatch looking to bounce back from a nightmare weekend in Northamptonshire, when he lined up sixteenth for both races at Rockingham Motor Speedway.

“Brands Hatch is a brilliant circuit,” explains Rivett who comes from Banstead, Surrey. “With it being my home circuit I’m hoping to have that extra edge.

“It’s not very often that you get a chance to race on the Grand Prix layout and it should make for some exciting battles, especially with the title going to the wire. Hopefully we are going to put the Lumison BlueSquare Data/Stancome Vehicle Engineering car at the front.”

“I think that we are going to see a lot of tight racing,” says Colburn, who currently sits fourth in the standings after a consistent season to date. “It will be very interesting going into free practice as there is nothing to separate the top four drivers. Being fourth I have the least to lose over my rivals so I can be a bit more relaxed in my approach, but I’m going out for wins.”

After his double race winning weekend at Rockingham, High Wycombe’s Jack Goff is the final driver heading to Brands Hatch with an outside change of the title – he currently sits 26 points off Goff.

“After taking two wins at Rockingham I’m feeling very confident looking ahead to Brands,” says Goff. “The team have done a great job in preparing the car and I can’t wait to get back out there again. I think that if we manage to qualify well like at Rockingham then two more victories are definitely on the cards.”

It isn’t just the outright Championship which will be decided at Brands Hatch – 20 Ten Racing’s Darren Wilson heads to Kent leading the Masters Cup title charge by seventeen points from former BTCC racer Mark Proctor.

Brands Hatch sees the grid bolstered with another three drivers. Scuderia Vittoria enter two cars for Ash Miller and Chris Smith and they will be looking to better the impressive showing of debutant Ant Whorton-Eales set at Rockingham last time out.

Handy Motorsport also make their official debut with Simon Belcher at the wheel. They raced at Silverstone in the ‘Cross Channel Challenge’, which supported the annual World Series by Renault event back in August.

The supporters will also have the opportunity to win at Brands Hatch. Title Sponsor AirAsia are offering a pair of return tickets to Kuala Lumpur for one lucky fan, who spots the AirAsia destination on the windscreen strip of one of the cars – then emails it to airasiaclio@sro.co.uk for a chance of being victorious.

The final weekend of the season for the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK gets underway on Saturday, October 1 with qualifying at 11.15 before race one at 16.25. The final race of the season will be televised on ITV4, ITV4 HD and itv.com and will start at 13.25 on Sunday, 2 October.

Three Drivers, One Crown: One Trip to Spa to Decide the Champion.

The Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS Series comes to the conclusion of its first season at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, 1^st/2^nd October with three drivers in contention for the title. The Championship top three are covered by twenty points with seventy two to play for.

Paul-Loup Chatin heads to Spa-Francorchamps as the Championship leader after his dominant weekend last time out at Paul Ricard, where he secured two Pole Positions and two victories. Chatin, who secured his first victory in Hungary at the beginning of July currently, sits two points ahead of his Tech 1 Racing team-mate, Javier Tarancon, while the third driver in contention, Yann Zimmer, is twenty points off Chatin.

Looking to back up his strongest weekend to date at Paul Ricard is Vittorio Ghirelli – the One Racing driver finished both races on the podium as well as lining up on the front row of the grid for the second race at Paul Ricard.

Monza winner Federico Gibbin is looking to repeat his Italian success at the Belgian circuit, he recorded a points finish at the Paul Ricard circuit while Kevin Gilardoni is looking to bounce back from a difficult weekend last time out. His team, Team Torino Motorsport won the Challenge Formula Renault 2.0 Italy with Andrea Boffo.

Another of the favourites is Melville McKee; Zimmer’s team-mate at Arta Engineering is a three time winner in 2011, having secured the honours at Imola and Red Bull Ring. Another driver to watch out for is Timmy Hansen in the Interwetten.com Junior Team car; Hansen secured a victory in Austria. American youngster Gustavo Menezes also returns to the fold this weekend.

Returning to the series at Spa-Francorchamps is Amir Mesny, alongside Zimmer and McKee at Arta Engineering and Alex Riberas for Epic Racing – both drivers missed the Paul Ricard races.

The season finale at Spa-Francorchamps will see practice sessions held on Friday, with duration of 60 minutes, which will get under way at 9am and 12.05pm before a single free practice session at 15.35 until 16.35.

Saturday will see a single qualifying session of 30 minutes starting at 9.40am until 10.10am with the penultimate race of the season starting at 13.10, with duration of 25 minutes plus a lap. The final race of the season will take place at 11.30am on Sunday.