BF3

Van der Merwe Castle Combe report

One year on and still winning Twelve months after his first victory in the British Formula Three championship, Alan van der Merwe was victorious at the circuit of his maiden triumph, piloting his Carlin Motorsport Dallara to a brilliant win at the ...

Published: Jun 23, 2003, 5:45 AM

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One year on and still winning

Twelve months after his first victory in the British Formula Three championship, Alan van der Merwe was victorious at the circuit of his maiden triumph, piloting his Carlin Motorsport Dallara to a brilliant win at the Wiltshire circuit of Castle Combe on Sunday.

"I'm delighted," said Alan, "To come back here and win with Carlin twelve months later is just fantastic." From fourth on the grid Alan catapulted his Dallara F303 Mugen Honda into second place at the first corner.

"That was my best start this year, there was just so much grip and our engine is very strong on acceleration," said the South African.

From the first corner, Alan quickly established a lead over Adam Carroll (Menu), but was running behind Danny Watts (Hitech). The leader then came into Camp corner too quickly on lap 9 - and under pressure from Alan - he spun out of the race. Alan was in the perfect place to inherit the lead and he maintained that position to the chequered flag.

"I thought Danny was taking too many risks in front, he was running wide quite often. It's important to be smooth and consistent here," said Alan.

It was a fantastic weekend for van der Merwe who leaves Castle Combe with his fifth win this year and a 64-point lead in the championship over his team mate Jamie Green.

In race two, Alan drove with speed and maturity to collect more points with a fourth place result. "It was important to finish and get more points for the championship. The three in front of me are nowhere in the title chase, and my closest rivals didn't get good results, so it's been a great weekend for us."

With another terrific win and a fourth place, van der Merwe scored 30 points in total at Castle Combe, which was more than any other driver in the championship class of the series. The championship continues in three weeks time at Oulton Park on 12/13 July.

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