Lehdistötiedotteet - Season 12 Full Roundup: Part 2 – Kings of Our Own Hills

Season 12 Full Roundup: Part 2 – Kings of Our Own Hills

Hi everyone! First of all, I know, I promised to continue our retrospective journey by checking out the National and Regional competition this time, but the sheer amount of data forced me to cut this project in half, and it's still a monster of a task... Anyway, I'll only write about the Nationals now, and I'll deal with regional racing next time. This one's even longer than the one before, so proceed with caution! :)

As expected, countries, with an advantage in the overall number of racers, tend to have a more fierce competition at this level, but as we are going to see, sometimes you'll find hidden gems in the least expected places. (Hence the term: “hidden”...) :)

Signature features of the national level are the wily old foxes, the series veterans, who are there to compare yourself to, every single year. Some of them are former champions, who didn't have the ambition, or the resources to move up the ladder, others are experienced front-runners, who want to finally get their hands on a title, and we also see the occasional “Dominator”, who just wants to win every week, even if that means racing against inferior competition. It's not easy for any young star to shine through all this, but some of them still managed to do so – and do so in style.

Since there is simply no time and space to analyze every championship in detail, I decided to choose one to focus on, (the British Series this time), while all the other series' will get shorter headlines.

Last year, the British Championship was mostly a battle between two “old” series regulars, the up-and-coming multiple race winner, and eventual champion, Chris Kemp (26), and one of the more unlucky men in the history of F3, 34 years old Graham Brammer, who ended up collecting silver in a racing series for the 5th time in his career. Sid Samuel (26), after just snatching 3rd from Aussie Jamie Warner (24) a season ago, decided to leave the series, while Warner came back to have a go at that coveted top 3 again. Another returner was young Steve Burnard (20), who turned a lot of heads last year, with a pole and a win. The most notable newcomer was former bronze medalist in the Italian Championship, Ritchard Meado (25), who took a year-long break, and came back hungrier than ever.

It didn't take long to realize, that reigning champ Kemp's major challenger (if anybody) will be Meado. The 25 years old looked unstoppable in the early races. Kemp usually managed to take pole, but Meado won 8 out of the first 10 events. As a matter of fact, Kemp went entirely winless in the first half of the season. When Meado failed to finish on 2 occasions, the veterans, Munney (32) and Brammer took the checkered flag first. Brammer was definitely in the title-hunt at that point, while Warner and Burnard could only be happy about consistency – 1 podium for each in 10 races didn't look too good.

The second half of the season turned everything upside-down. Pierre Dumont's (22) amazing pole and sprint win was a shocker for sure, but Kemp was right there to take 2nd, and win the feature race, as Meado had issues. Kemp added an additional 6 wins to his tally from that point, while Meado couldn't seem to regain his previous form, until it was too late. He did get the clean sweep in Knockhill, but Kemp was already ahead in points at that time, and a huge mistake and DNF by Meado while leading comfortably in only the 4th lap of the final sprint race in Croft, pretty much wrapped up the title for Kemp. Warner's 4th spot in the feature race earned him 3rd overall, although he was very tightly contested by Dumont, Brammer, and Munney. Young Burnard couldn't quite feature in the podium fight as many expected, but he didn't disappoint with his consistency – finishing 18 races in the top 10.

The Italian title was also won by the reigning champ: 21 years old talent, Francesco Pace. Watch out for him (if he decides to move up), because he's really fast. (Nomen est omen – he's called Pace, and he has plenty for sure...) Really dominated this year, plenty of speed (5 poles, 8 wins), and more than enough consistency. Late bloomer Cancian (26) and last year's Portuguese Series winner (in style, if I might add...) Coelho (21) couldn't even come close, as they battled for 2nd – with the spot eventually taken by Cancian. Bianchi is worth mentioning as the youngest driver in the top10 at the age of 19.

The US Championship was basically the same story: former top rookie, German Johnny Smith (21) was a runaway champion for the second time, winning 11 races. Watch out for him, as our sources say he's heading for international competition next year! In the the fight for the overall podium, Series regulars, Diedrich (27) and Shackleford (26) had a new formidable rival in the form of Avgust Kuznetsov (20). The youngster still has a lot of room for improvement, but he managed to get a win, and beat Shackleford in the overall for 3rd. Other notable youngsters are British Jackson Storm (turned 19 today – happy birthday Jackson! :)), who skipped the rookie series, and finished 8th overall, and Eric Hendrix (still 18, as he's 1 day younger then Storm), who finished 9th. Watch out for those two in the future!

The championship fight Down Under was a true Hollywood drama, and the final race of the season is worth taking a more in-depth look. Keith Lightning (21) was starting from pole, after finally catching his main rival, Jackson Beck (20), having secured 5 wins in a row, and taking the championship lead by only 3 points.

The start of the race was clean, and although Lightning lost the lead for a short while to another fast young Aussie, Emerson Miller (22), but he got it back pretty soon. Things looked even better for him, when Beck's car was damaged, after colliding with aggressive Brazilian Senna, and Beck had to pit. He dropped to 25th, with 1/3 of the race already done. He was 18th a lap later. 13th in 3 laps, and kept moving forward, while Lightning lost the lead again to Miller. Beck cracked the top10 in 6 laps, but Des Fourie's mistake damaged his car again, which proved unrepairable this time – Beck didn't care, just kept climbing.

At exactly half-time, Miller crashed out on his own – Lightning inherited the lead back, while Beck already moved to 4th. With only 11laps to go, both 2nd and 3rd had issues, Moraes dropped out with technical problems, while preseason favourite Reid had an off-track excursion – gifting 2nd spot to Beck. Lightning didn't have to worry of course, his lead was almost a minute at that point. Then came lap 57 (3 from the end), where Lightning performed his best “Ayrton Senna falling asleep in Monaco, while leading by a mile”-impression. He crashed out on his own, handing Beck both the race win and the title. Not that he didn't work for it, of course! It was an epic, and I bet that's not the last time we heard about these boys!

The Brazilian, Croatian and Dutch Series all had a dominant winner. Jacobsson (21), Šević (22) and Harvey (27) had no real challenger. Experienced racers, Missud (31), Reckziegel (25), Van Laere(29), and youngsters De Backer (20), Snelheid (23), Ruijt (22) and Bettelli (20) produced a valiant effort. Another name to remember could be Germany's Michael Beuttler (19) – if he's managed well, he could become a threat.

The Czech Series was dominated by two guys – talented Lumir Vrana (20) was chasing Míra Mařík (24) all season long, but the slightly older Mařík usually managed to keep him behind to take the trophy. Jiri Nowak (28) notched up some wins, helping him secure 3rd overall, while 4th place went to a very promising teenager – David Kresak (19). Certainly one to watch.

Spaniard Maverick More (30) was risking it all in Estonia, but 8 wins didn't get him the title, he ended up in 3rd overall, behind eventual champion Ella Zhuk (23), and experienced Tino Landeira (29). It is worth mentioning, that Estonia's very own Paul Kukk (also turned 19 today, so happy birthday to you too Paul!) scored a great 5th spot in his maiden season.

While an unbelievably rapid, but rather limited Swedish teenager, Dan Bäckman (19) totally dominated the Finnish Series, both the French and the German Championship was a tight battle. In Germany, Hanna (22) seemed to have a speed advantage over Dolche (25), but had more DNFs, so the Dolche ended up on top. In France, two former champions clashed, guys who stayed at home for their entire career, and Alexandre Schmitt (31) managed to get a fantastic 5th title! His rival and former double champion himself, Terenduik (37) achieved something to remember, too, finishing in the top 2 overall, for the 7th time in a row.

Hungarian kamikaze, Janni (28) came closest to the title at home this year by adding another 9 wins to his tally after already winning 14 races in earlier seasons, but failing to finish in almost every other race cost him again. Csuti (28) chose a different, more careful approach, and succeeded , becoming the champion, while Muraközy (21) showed a lot of promise for his age.

Harry Fuchs (21) totally demolished the field in Latvia, winning 13 times, and establishing himself as one of the most promising guys for the future, while in Poland, the veteran German Andrzej Benke (30) managed to finally get the top spot with 11 wins, after being in contention, but losing out by a little, multiple times earlier. He was chased hard by home-runner Dariusz Trzciński (24), but it was talented Andi Bernie Jr. (19) who turned the most heads with 2 pole positions, a win, and a promising 6th spot in the final standings.

Young Frenchman Arnaud Briand (19) proved unstoppable to the home stars in Portugal, although the field had plenty of young talent, especially Alesi (21) and Ara (21) looks promising in the long run. Journeyman racer Romain Louis' (29) career-long championship-winning streak ended last year, so he decided to try and repeat his perfect season from 2 years ago in Romania. Came close, but had to “settle” for 19 out 20. Jeremy Parise (21) impressed by taking a pole, he can grow into a legit contender somewhere later.

Sergey Kotov (27) proved strongest by quite a margin in Russia, (19-year American A.W. Hax turned heads with solid top5s here), while the Slovak Series was ruled by a couple of local girls: Terezia Petrova (26) was dominant with 11 wins, and Katarína Krátka (26) looked very impressive as well, with a combination of consistently strong performances, great driving skills, and a charming personality. :) The series also featured a couple of very talented young boys, home hero Babic (20) and Italian Lavabo Jr (19) both could have a bright future.

In Ukraine, Finn Miska Nylund (20) got the better of 4-time champ Byron (31), and looked really strong in the process, definitely one to watch! It was a pretty good field, actually, and Swiss rookie Dom Regazzoni (18) surprised a lot of people by coming home in 4th overall.

A lot of young, international talent found its way to the Slovenian Series this year, and one of them proved a bit too good for the local boy, Klun (22). Timofey Shvedko (20) won the championship with a very solid effort in front of Klun, while another 4 interesting youngsters completed the top 6, all under 21: Dominguez (19), Loncar (20), Claretti (20) and Ivanov (21). Don't be surprised to meet many of these guys in the paddocks at the international level in the coming years.

Young Spanish star, Enrique Moralesgarcia (19) had no competition in the Spanish Series, 17 (!) race wins at his age shows how impressive he is.

Actually, to me, Moralesgarcia, along with Portuguese champ Briand, they look the most promising youngsters at this level, although Pace, Smith, Beck, Lightning, Fuchs, Nylund, Shvedko and Bäckman are right there too. (Bäckman will really need to find some magic to keep up long-term, though...)

So, that's the story of Season 12's National Championships, I hope you found it interesting enough to follow me next time, when I analyze the F3 Regionals.

Cheers,
sharpbyte

PS: Part 1 can be found here: http://www.myracingcareer.com/en/press-releases/2913/