Jamie Chadwick makes British F3 History

On track (Photo by Marc Waller)

On track (Photo by Marc Waller)Jamie Chadwick made history at Brands Hatch last weekend when she took her first ever BRDC British F3 championship victory in her Douglas Motorsport run car, the first ever for a female driver in the championship.

The weekend hadn’t started that great for Chadwick with a twelfth-place finish but as things turned out, this was to help her achieve the amazing result in race two. The twelfth-place finish gave her fourth on the grid with the positions reversed.

She made a great start and was soon up into second. The car in the lad however had made a bit too good of a start and was judged to have jumped the start earning the car a ten second penalty. As long as Jamie remained less than ten seconds behind that car she would be able to take the victory.

Initially Chadwick tried to fight for the lead on track but it wasn’t worth the risk and she concentrated on keeping the second place, eventually pulling a slim but significant lead of half a second on the next car behind her. Chadwick had hoped the jump start penalty would be in the form of a drive through and so eliminate the ‘phantom’ car in front of her but instead the time was added to the car’s finishing time.

In the end, all three of the cars behind the ‘phantom’ leader were within ten seconds and so they were the actual top three finishers.

Chadwick spoke after the race;

“I’m on top of the world, it’s a massive weight off my shoulders and something I’ve been chasing for a long time. To get it at Brands Hatch, a legendary circuit and one that I’ve always enjoyed racing on is an amazing feeling.”

“I’ve gone through my career and there’s always been a burden with various records, but I just want to win races, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, so to get my first British F3 win, female or not, is great.”

She was already third in the first corner (Photo by Marc Waller) Jamie crosses the line as her team celebrate (Photo by Marc Waller) Jamie was thrilled to finally win in F3 (Photo by Marc Waller) On the top step (Photo by Marc Waller)

 

 

 

“It was one of the easier races I’ve had, I knew Pavan [Ravishankar] was going to get a penalty and my position was fairly safe so I just stayed with him and kept a clear head, kept on chipping away and came away with the win.”

If you’ve been a long term reader of Girlracer or a follower of motorsport you’ll probably remember that Jamie Chadwick is no stranger to success having won the British GT4 championship on her first attempt in 2015 alongside Ross Gunn. She has found Single seaters a bit tougher but she has scored several podiums over her two seasons in the championship but a win had always evaded her until now.

There is now just a single meeting to go for the F3 championship at Donington Park in September. Chadwick will be hoping that her win helps boost her to further success as she ends the season on a high. As Chadwick herself says, she just wants to win races! By Marc Waller

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