Pendulum swings in Kerr’s favour

WITH three races at the Avon Tyres British Formula 3 Championship at Snetterton, the pendulum has swung back in favour of Robbie Kerr, who netted two wins yesterday.

Even though his arch-rival James Courtney had extended his championship lead to seven points following the result of Saturday's rearranged race, Kerr now leads the F1 feeder series by 21 points ahead of the double-header races at Thruxton and Brands Hatch that will complete the season over the next three weeks.

As expected, Portadown's Adam Carroll took the Scholarship title with a hat-trick of wins.

Courtney and Kerr were locked at the front of the rearranged race on Saturday that was brought forward from the Croft meeting.

As they headed into the first corner, they collided at Riches and Richard Antinucci took advantage.

As he took up the lead, Kerr had to retire as his car was damaged after contact with the barrier. Luckily, Courtney was able to recover, albeit at the end of the field.

Antinucci led until the third lap when he was displaced by Heikki Kovalainen. The Finnish driver extended his lead, although he endured an anxious moment when his car drifted on sand brought out by a spinning backmarker. Antinucci withstood the pressure from Bruce Jouanny.

Adam Carroll passed the chequered flag in sixth to take a clear win in the Scholarship Class from Clive Piccione. Courtney eventually finished ninth to claim four championship points and move seven points ahead of Kerr.

In yesterday's first race, Kerr converted his pole position into a valuable win to reclaim the championship lead. The Briton also set fastest lap en-route to a facile win. The safety car emerged on two separate occasions, initially to allow debris to be cleared at Riches and the second time when three cars collided at Russell.

Frenchman Bruce Jouanny finished behind Kerr after he passed Fabio Carbone, who took the final place on the podium. Behind the top three, there was a fascinating contest for fourth between Kovalainen, Courtney and Alan van der Merwe, all of whom held the position at one stage during the race. Fortec driver Kovalainen managed to claim the spot as Courtney, who had slipped to sixth, lost too much time trying to overtake his Carlin team mate, van der Merwe.

One of the stars of the race was Adam Carroll, he qualified in twentieth place, but fought courageously to win the Scholarship category and take ninth overall. His Sweeney Racing team-mate Billy Asaro was second and Meritus racing ace Gavin Smith took a long overdue podium place with third.

Kerr added a second win, his ninth of the season to consolidate his championship lead to 21 points as Courtney had to be content with sixth. Kerr led from the start with Jouanny and Kovalainen securing the remaining podium places. Courtney did well to finish in sixth, having qualified a lowly tenth; he lost another two places when two Scholarship drivers forced him on to the grass at the start.

Meanwhile, in the Scholarship category, Adam Carroll clinched the 2002 crown after several drivers hit trouble. His only rival for the title, Clive Piccione stalled and retired at the start of the race. Robert Dahlgren was forced out with mechanical difficulties and both Karun Chandhok and Stephen Colbert retired after they clashed at Riches on the last lap. Gavin Smith took another third place for the Meritus outfit.

Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman were comfortable winners of the Galway Summer Rally in Portumna, their second win in recent weeks.

They led the nine-stage rally from the start finishing the opening stage 18 seconds ahead of the Subaru Impreza of Patrick Elliott/Martin Cahill. Such was their dominance, not even a blown turbo and the loss of 34 seconds at the start of one stage due to gear problems, could deny them victory as they had the measure of their opponents.

Locals JJ Fleming/Robbie Ward, also in a Subaru WRC, were a minute and 27 seconds adrift. Ivan Stewart/Gerard Callaghan (Escort Cosworth) were third a further one minute and 42 seconds in arrears. Having held second place for most of the rally, Patrick Elliott crashed his Subaru on the final stage. James Foley/Andrew Cullen (Mitsubishi) won the Group N category and also claimed fourth. The top six was completed by the Toyota Celica of George Cullen/Seán Mullally and the Opel Manta 400 of another local crew, John Spain/Pat Egan.

Meanwhile, in Cork, Eamonn Byrne (Mini Special) won both rounds of the Hewison Autotest series.