Race Report – Round 6
After scoring nearly 100 points at Silverstone, Hitech head into the summer break with an 11-point lead at the top of the GB3 Teams’ Championship. The squad’s haul of points was capped off by an exciting comeback performance by Tymek Kucharczyk, who clinched his eighth podium of the season with an impressive on-track pass for third on the final lap of the weekend.
It had been a disappointing start for Tymek when he was sadly involved in an incident at Stowe on the second lap of Saturday’s opening race. After attempting an overtake for third, he was forced to retire after running wide into the gravel trap on the outside of the corner.
But the Polish driver made an excellent recovery on Sunday when he amassed 38 points with a fifth and third in the final two races of the weekend. Despite losing the lead of the Drivers’ Championship with the non-finish, his recovery keeps him in the hunt for the title, just 13 points off top spot – and in third overall.
“From my side the last race of the weekend was a really good battle,” said Tymek. “Really happy to finally show some decent pace this weekend as we’d been struggling with the car quite a lot. The positions in qualifying didn’t really make it easy for the races. But happy to get on the podium and score a decent amount of points for the championship which is the most important thing.”
Chinese racer Gerrard Xie clinched 47 points for the Hitech team at Silverstone with a battling drive that netted the 17-year-old a fourth place on Saturday, followed by two more top ten finishes at the high-speed Formula 1 circuit on Sunday. And after struggling with his pace in qualifying, Will Macintyre picked up 27 points across the three races. The British driver was particularly impressive at the final GB3 round of the weekend. After starting 18th on the grid, Will delivered a number of spectacular overtaking manoeuvres to climb up to finish a respectable tenth at the chequered flag.
After 18 rounds the GB3 Championship takes an extended six-week break over the summer before returning on September 7-8th with the next race at Donington Park, ahead of the season finale takes which place at the end of September at Brands Hatch. With both title battles closely poised, it’s set to be an exciting climax to this year’s GB3 Championship.
