03.10.06 TURVEY MAKES F3 DEBUT Oliver Turvey had his first taste of the British Formula Three Championship with an exploratory outing for Team Loctite in the season finale at Thruxton last weekend. Currently proving a dominant force in the Formula BMW UK Championship, Turvey has set his sights on F3 for 2007, so was eager to take this opportunity to sample the faster and more powerful machinery. The circumstances were not ideal - as the team were unable to test at a racetrack prior to the meeting so had to conduct their set-up work via a brief shakedown run at the Haynes facility. Constantly changing weather conditions provided another headache, as a series of extremely heavy showers attacked Hampshire intermittently throughout the racing weekend. As a guest entrant, Turvey was officially registered in the Invitation Class, but the team were comparing his performance to that of the National Class contenders, as his Team Loctite Dallara F304 was technically eligible for the category for slightly older cars. He qualified a promising fourth in the National field for the first race, but would end up last in the second session after an electrical problem within the car's engine meant that he was unable to set a time during the brief period when the circuit was dry. Turvey was able to pass a couple of Championship Class cars in the very wet conditions of race one, and maintained his fourth position amongst the National runners. The afternoon race saw more progress, as Turvey converted his 22nd position on the overall grid to 16th after a characteristically excellent start and proactive first lap charge. He would later lose time when his wet tyres began to suffer on the rapidly drying track, but still held on to finish third in the National Class, albeit officially classed as an 'invitational' runner. "Although the compromised circumstances made this weekend a bit of a trial for the whole team, Oliver did extremely well," said Team Loctite team principal Trevor Powell. "As these races were a learning experience, it was important to finish both of them, which he managed despite the challenging weather. What was effectively third place amongst the National cars was a good result in the second race too, even if Oliver didn't receive a trophy for it." << back to news