Fairclough scores a podium at Donington Park
Round 7 - Donington Park - Report
Hitech TGR’s Deagen Fairclough secured a podium finish after an action-packed three races in the penultimate round of the GB3 Championship at Donington Park. His third place came in the second race of the weekend, while his Hitech team-mate Keanu Al Azhari finished the weekend with a strong fifth place.
In three races that involved plenty of incident, Deagen’s podium was achieved after the 19-year-old made a strong start from fourth on the grid. In Sunday morning’s encounter, he was up to third by the first corner, Redgate. The British driver spent much of the race tucked up behind second place — and late on made an attempt to pass at the Melbourne Hairpin after a Safety Car restart.
Up front, the race leader was given a ten-second penalty for a jump start, but Deagen wasn’t able to capitalise and finished third on the road, which is where he remained in the final classification.
Deagen Fairclough:
“We had the pace. We just couldn't get by in the dirty air. The first two sectors are quite high speed and the last sector is where you really want to get the overtake done. But yeah, the dirty air was a bit of a struggle here.”
“I had a few opportunities to go for an overtake, but it was a little bit too risky. We just wanted to bag the points. So yeah, all in all, pretty pleased — love a podium, we can’t complain, and it’s good points in the championship.”
In Saturday’s race, Deagen started fifth and made a bold first-lap pass into the chicane to grab fourth place. After a brief Safety Car intervention, he managed to move up to third at the restart, but lost the position entering Redgate. In the dry but windy conditions, he ran wide at the Old Hairpin and dropped a couple of places, ultimately finishing sixth. In Race 3, he was lapping in the top ten, but seemed to suffer a technical issue with his car and although he was still running at the flag, he was over a minute behind the rest of the field.
The challenging conditions also caught out Keanu Al Azhari in Saturday’s race, when he too ran wide at the Old Hairpin and ended up in the gravel trap. Prior to his trip across the grass, Keanu had enjoyed a battling encounter. After starting ninth, the Dubai-born racer was up to eighth with a bold move at Coppice before the Safety Car was deployed.
He then took advantage of Deagen’s excursion off track to claim a couple more places, and the 17-year-old was running fifth when he retired. In Sunday morning’s 18-lap encounter, Keanu started 11th and was ninth by the end of the opening lap. The pink-liveried Alpine Academy car made an excellent move at McLean’s to take eighth before the Safety Car. Despite a frantic four-car scrap ahead of him in the closing stages, Keanu couldn’t quite find a way through and crossed the line in eighth.
In Race 3, Keanu enjoyed his best result of the weekend, in a race that was punctuated by two Safety Cars — the first for a four-car incident at the Fogarty’s Esses. The Emirati started the final race of the weekend in P4, and held off strong pressure at the end to take fifth at the flag. In the points standings, Keanu sits in seventh on 264 points, 29 points behind Deagen in fifth.
