Chris Dittmann Racing headed to picturesque Cheshire at the weekend (April 08/10) for the opening round of the GB3 Championship at Oulton Park, where a series of bad luck meant the team was unable to show its full potential.

Although scenic, Oulton Park is a tricky circuit to cleanly overtake on, meaning qualifying plays a crucial part in how the weekend progresses. Despite his rookie status, French teenager Arthur Rogeon impressed with a lap quick enough to place his car firmly in the top ten.

Team returnee Zak Taylor had a trickier time, with his lack of testing coming into play as he struggled to get the best out of himself and the car. The young racer qualified 21st, making races one and two a challenge, but allowed for a top ten start in reverse grid race three.

Race one began with misfortune as Arthur was penalised for jumping the start. Up two places into seventh and keeping pace with the cars around him, his race was going well before contact from another car at Cascades sent him onto the grass on the closing lap of the race.

Further down the grid, Zak got away well, gaining four places on the opening lap. After being forced off at Hislops, the 20-year-old re-joined three positions down, before a three-car pile-up under the Safety Car meant he was able to sail though into 15th, a gain of six positions overall.

Easter Monday brought rain as the cars took to the track for the formation lap for race two, where the majority of cars pitted for a change to wet tyres. Zak worked his way up the field from his starting position of 22nd, gaining a total of ten places to cross the line 12th. A good start for Arthur however was thwarted when contact caused significant damage to his front wing. Doing well to maintain eighth for much of the race, his front wing detached on the penultimate lap, sending him back down the order into 15th and, unfortunately, a post-race penalty meant he would be classified 20th.

Mixed conditions set in ahead of race three, with both drivers deciding on slicks for the start, with Zak having made his way up into fourth before the end of the opening lap. However, a stall on the grid brought out the Safety Car, where an error on track caused the young Brit to fall back into 17th, where he crossed the line after no full racing laps were held thereafter. Arthur was up into 11th ahead of the Safety Car, but as the circuit had gone green, a coming together with Max Esterson sent both cars into the wall, resulting in an unlucky DNF for the youngster.

Despite a series of disappointing events for the Tewksbury outfit, a lot of promising signs of pace and racing potential from both drivers could be seen, and lessons learned can be applied ahead of the next round at Silverstone due to take place over the weekend of May 6/7.

Zak Taylor #9

G1 – 21, R1 – 15
G2 – 22, R2 – 12
G3 – 6, R3 – 17

Championship – 18 (15 points)

“Qualifying was pretty poor, definitely quite far below the standard that I should be driving at. I never quite got to grips with the car and setup, I think largely due to a lack of testing as well as the number of red flags in pre-event testing. The team and I will work hard to make our qualifying sessions are better, and I’m sure by Silverstone we’ll be back up there.

“Race one was a bit of a shunt fest towards the end, with quite a few cars crashing under a Safety Car, which should never happen, so it was a strange end to the race. I managed to gain a few places from all of the carnage so it wasnt all bad, just a weird one. My start was good, and I made up four places on the opening lap which was promising. Unfortunately, I was pushed off the track by another car at the second chicane and lost three places. The Safety car and crashes later in the race evened things up again for me and I eventually finished 15th.

“Race two was a little bit disappointing. We had made the correct decision to pit on the green flag lap for wet tyres, but everyone else getting a free tyre change on the grid before the start of the race didn’t help us. We’d have probably gained around 15 places by making the correct decision at the start if others had been on slicks, but that’s just how things go sometimes. I’m happy with how we were able to gain ten places throughout the race, so that was a definite positive.

“In race three, I made a mistake that shouldn’t have happened, regardless of conditions. That meant I fell down the order and as we only had one racing lap, I didn’t get a shot at trying to fight my way back up. I’m sorry to the team for that, but we’ll make it right at the next round.

Arthur Rogeon #18

G1 – 9, R1 – 18
G2 – 11, R2 – 20
G3 – 17, R3 – DNF

Championship – 22 (9 points)

“Qualifying felt good, but I think if I had managed to put all my fast sectors in the same lap, I could have been two tenths up. But overall, I’m happy with how it went. Unfortunately, in the first race I made a jumpstart, so I ended up with a ten second time penalty. In the race itself I managed my speed well and kept up with the cars around me. It was only on the restart that I made a small mistake and fell back a bit. The car behind me tried to make a move on me and touched my rear left wheel, leaving me with a puncture. We definitely have good pace, as without the penalty, I would have finished sixth. I’m really happy with that as it was my first ever race in single seaters, so I don’t think we could have asked for much more.

“I started from 11th on the grid for race two, and we were all on slicks, but it started to rain on the formation lap, so I came back into the pit to change onto the wets. I had a good start and was up one position before coming into contact with another car and getting damage. My front wing was broken but later it completely detached. I lost a lot of time due to that and it made the car difficult to drive. Unfortunately, after the race I found out I had been given a 60 second penalty for ignoring the black and orange flag. At the time I didn’t see it due to the spray from all of the water on track, so that was pretty bad luck.

“For race three we chose to put the slicks on, as it had been wet but was drying out. I had a great start and had made up a lot of places on the first lap. Coming up to Island, in normal dry conditions it’s a flat corner but it was tricky in these conditions. I braked very early going into the bend but drove into the car in front and ended up in the wall. That was a disappointing end to the weekend, but a lot of lessons learned for next time.”