Hitech stay top after a dramatic Spa weekend
Hitech TGR faced a challenging weekend at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit but came away from Belgium with a podium for Nikita Johnson and top spot in the GB3 Teams’ standings. A fighting comeback drive from Deagen Fairclough also ensured he leaves the Ardennes third overall in the Drivers’ Championship.
The highlight of the weekend was Race 2 on Saturday afternoon, when Nikita finished P2 after an excellent drive through the field. The American racer was due to line up third on the grid but received a three-place penalty for an incident in Race 1.
Despite dropping to seventh on the opening lap, Nikita began to make progress, expertly overtaking his rivals up the Kemmel Straight and into Les Combes. Also making headway was his Hitech team-mate Keanu Al Azhari, who had started fifth and was running in close contention with Nikita.
By lap six, the two Hitech machines were running in tandem, with Nikita passing Keanu into Les Combes for third. Two laps later, the American’s impressive race pace took him into second place, but a premature end to the race meant he wasn’t able to challenge for outright honours. Keanu took fourth, while Deagen finished 11th after starting 15th.
Nikita Johnson:
“We had a lot of pace in our car, we were very fast. I passed all those guys and I could stay with them through sectors one, two and three. So Hitech gave me an amazing car. We were hunting down the lead and I think we might have been able to go for the win.”
Celebrating his second podium of the season, Nikita continued:
“It was pretty difficult, especially when I was fifth or sixth and everybody was in a DRS train. I just had to time it right and choose my battles. But fortunately, with the DRS train, I could pass a car and get right back in DRS, so I didn’t have to worry about defending.”
The weekend began with an unfortunate on-track incident for Deagen in qualifying, which meant he failed to set a representative lap time and was forced to start all three races from the tail of the field. But with Spa’s long straights and the introduction of DRS to the series this year, he was able to make progress.
In Race 1, Deagen started 21st but had risen 12 places by the chequered flag to finish ninth — which later became 19th after a post-race penalty. The much-anticipated rain finally arrived on Sunday morning, but by the time the GB3 field lined up on the grid, the track was only partially wet. It led to strategic gambles on tyre choice, with the front half of the field — including Keanu (7th) and Nikita (10th) — starting on wets. Meanwhile, after his reconnaissance lap, Deagen came into the pits and opted for slicks.
In the first half of the race, wet tyres had the advantage, with Keanu brilliantly taking the lead by lap seven. But as the track continued to dry, slicks became the preferred option, and Deagen began setting lap times several seconds faster than the leaders. On lap seven, he had risen from his pit lane start to tenth. Two laps later, he was up to fourth. Keanu and Nikita enjoyed their own personal battle and crossed the line virtually together in 11th and 12th respectively.
Unfortunately, Deagen lost a place on the final lap and came home fifth but leaves Spa on 133 points, just 32 off the top. Meanwhile, Hitech lead the Teams’ standings by just five points as the GB3 Championship reconvenes in Hungary on the first weekend of July.