TANDY’S EMOTIONAL VICTORY

Earlier in the morning the Rockingham pit lane fell silent as the cast and crew of the Formula 3 Series & the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain observed a one-minute tribute to Joe Tandy, who was killed in a road accident two weeks ago. More than 100 people surrounded the JTR pit garages to show their support and respect for the Tandy family, Joe's friends and JTR team members. In the day's second F3 race, Sweden’s Marcus Ericsson broke his duck finally after four second-place finishes last season and a further runner-up spot in race 1. The 18-year-old, is guesting with the Raikkonen Robertson team during a break in his Japanese F3 schedule.

In the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, Saturday's race was an event of high drama and attrition over which the Invitation Class Ginetta G50Z driven by Joe Osborne and Olly Bryant emerged triumphant. Although the Barwell team repeated the trick in Sunday’s race with another victory for Osborne and Bryant, the headlines were grabbed by 17 year old T-Car graduate Dan Brown who propelled himself back to the top of the points standings thanks to a well-judged GT3 class victory in the sixth round of the championship. Sharing the Momo-backed Rollcentre Mosler with Gregor Fisken, Brown drove superbly to snatch the class victory from the hands of David Jones in the Preci-Spark Ascari on the final lap of the race.

In the 3 rounds of the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain Jamun’s James Cole built on his points lead with victories in rounds 5 & 6. This was preceded by another emotional win for the JTR Formula Ford squad with young American Josef Newgarden taking the chequered flag in round 4.

After three full seasons of trying, Herbie the Beetle and his long-serving driver Steve Chaplin finally made it on to the top step of the Volkswagen Racing Cup podium yesterday at Rockingham, and for good measure they won both of the day's races to scorch up the points leaderboard of the Hankook-backed championship.

Gloucestershire-based Chaplin, 44, had finished on the podium many times before but that first victory had always proved elusive. And last time out, at Oulton Park, the car took a battering. But Steve showed his mettle to edge out championship leader Joe Fulbrook into second place in both races.

The full results for the meeting can be found at: www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major&season=2009&series=BF3GT&event=races&source=bf3gt2006&eventid=92205.html