May. 24, 2010

Andrew Johnstone

Oli Webb holds off Jean-Eric Vergne at Magny-Cours.

DORSET, England – High temperatures and high action dominated the weekend’s racing, both the SPEED Sports Prototype Series at Brands Hatch and across the Channel at Magny-Cours in the Cooper Tires British F3.

Expectations were high that the Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge standing would see something of a shake up. Expectations came true.

Oli Webb, 19, had a blistering weekend, cementing his status as one of the drivers to watch. His victory at Magny-Cours – which involved snatching wins in both races, the lead in the Sunoco Daytona Challenge and the British F3 Championship lead from Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne of Carlin – was, commented some spectators, on a par with Agincourt, except without the arrows.

Webb richly deserved being awarded Sunoco Driver of the Weekend for his stellar performance.

The SPEED race on Saturday saw Webb – second on the grid – blast past the Frenchman, who had pole, but seemed to like it so much that he didn’t move for a second or two after the lights went to green.
Webb’s victory was, of course, all the sweeter for taking place on Vergne’s native soil. More than that, it proved how quickly Webb can adapt.

Said Webb, still in France, “I loved it here. I’d never raced Magny-Cours before, not even on a simulator, and had three hours to practice and familiarise myself with the track, so to beat Jean-Eric on his home turf is really something.

“And if I beat him here, it’s going to be that much harder for him when we return to racing in the UK,” commented Webb.

Six-tenths of a second separated Webb and Vergne at the end of Sunday’s race, which was down from the earlier eight-tenths difference – “…because I backed off a touch to save the tyres a bit,” said Webb – yet the two drivers were more than 20 seconds ahead of third-placed Gabriel Dias of Hitech Racing.

Two fastest laps – 1m 34.816s in Round 7 and 1m 35.449 in Round 9 – helped Webb achieve 93.33 average points, edging just ahead of SPEED’s Jody Firth of Team WFR on 91.67 average points in the Sunoco Daytona Challenge.

The Team WFR Ligier of Firth and Joey Foster set a cracking pace from pole position under Sunday’s cerulean skies. Foster’s fastest lap of 1m 25.684 was the best part of six seconds swifter than the next car.

The Top 10 Sunoco Daytona Challenge standings show a healthy mix of all four competing series, which goes to prove that the Challenge is wide open.

And it’s quite a prize. The Sunoco Daytona Challenge will give one driver the chance to race in the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona, the pre-eminent endurance race in the US.

British F3 stays overseas for the next round at Hockenheim the weekend of May 29th-30th. More excitement and possibly another change at the top of the leader board will follow.

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