Silverstone: Barton Mawer preview

Lots of Points on Offer at Silverstone for Barton.

Current National Class Championship leader, Barton Mawer has his sights set on the 62 points on offer in the next round of the 2005 British Formula 3 International Series to be held at the Silverstone Grand Prix track this weekend.

In addition to the programmed two races to be held on Sunday, the second abandoned race from Spa will be run on Saturday. The weekend will begin earlier than normal, with a test day at Silverstone scheduled for Tuesday. The round will be run in conjunction with the LMES (Le Mans Endurance Series) and is expected to draw a big crowd. Barton is looking forward to the opportunity to extend his National Class Championship lead around the highly prestigious track that is home of the British Formula 1 race in July.

Barton, who has spent little time in the car since the last round of the Championship was held at Monza 5 weeks ago, spent last Wednesday testing at Snetterton. This gave him and his team, T-Sport, a full day to work on the car in preparation for the Silverstone round of the Championship.

"It was great to be back in the car and to get a full day out on the track before the race weekend after such a big break. We did about 200 miles during the day and we were happy with how the test went."

Barton was invited out to the A1GP test at Silverstone last Thursday to meet the Australian team and was surprised by the high standard of the whole A1GP operation.

"The cars sound awesome. I was very impressed with the way everything was set up; the teams seem very professional and there is a big focus on achieving success for your country."

Barton made it clear to the team that he was very keen to represent Australia in the series.

"The concept of pitting country against country is fantastic. It means a great deal too any sports person to represent their country and until now you have not been able to do this in motorsport. Should the opportunity arise, I would love to represent Australia in the A1GP series."

Barton also caught up with one of his old Australian Formula 3 rival, Christian Jones, who was driving the Australian A1GP car for the test at Silverstone.

Barton will return to Silverstone on Tuesday morning for his first time around the full Grand Prix track in the Formula 3 test session.

-www.bartonmawer.com