Ben Hingeley won his second race of the season in the second encounter at Silverstone, surging past his Fortec team mates to take a lead on the opening lap that he would not relinquish.

Ben said – “I was starting in the middle of all that in fourth, so I managed to get a great start, that was a real factor in the race win. Into first after the first lap was what I dreamed of, really and they came back at me towards the end, I had to hang on a little but i’m really happy with it.”

This weekend saw round 4,5 and 6 of the British F3 championship at Rockingham circuit. Ben qualified 3rd after a red flag brought the session to an early finish.

Race 1 – Starting P3, A first corner incident dropped Ben back to fourth. He maintained position to gain valuable championship points and 2nd fastest lap of the race.

Race 2 – Starting 5th for the reverse grid start, A first corner incident between Chadwick and Pull caused damage to Ben’s floor tray. He still managed to slot into 4th but a loss of downforce meant he couldn’t progress further. More solid 4th place championship points.

Race 3 – Starting P2, As the lights went out Ben slotted in behind Cameron Das before a safety car was called due to an incident on track. At the restart Das tried to pull away but Ben seized the opportunity to throw his car down the inside at the hairpin and took the lead. Ben was leading when yet another safety car was called. This time it was Ben who had to control the situation making the perfect restart. He continued to the chequered flag to take his first F3 victory.

This weekend saw the first round of the BRDC British F3 at Oulton Park. With mixed weather conditions, Ben qualified well in 4th.  Race 1 had to be postponed on Saturday due to barrier damage, this meant that all 3 races were on Monday where the weather conditions were very wet.

Race Results

Race 1 – 4th “With a drying track we took a risk with quite a dry setup unfortunately it rained and went against us.”

Race 2 – 2nd “Having started 5th I made a good start but nearly got collected in an incident just ahead of me damaging my front wing, luckily I managed to keep hold of 2nd place even with damage.”

Race 3 – 6th “I started 7th because of the damage I had in race 2 my lap time wasn’t too quick. I got up to 6th but unfortunately with overtaking being very difficult I couldn’t progress any further.”

This weekend Ben has been supporting Luke’s Army to help raise funds to fight cancer. Luke who is 13 was diagnosed with Hodgkinsons Lymphoma in December 2016. Ben represented Luke’s Army with stickers on his car, and treated Luke and his family to a day at the first round of the championship at Oulton Park.

Luke was able to spend time with Ben and the Fortec team, and had a sit in the F3 car. We would like to send Luke our very best wishes, please help support him by visiting his fundraising page.  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/luke.ashton

Ben Hingeley Is counting down the days in preparation to the opening round of the British Formula 3 at Oulton Park. Ben has been keeping in shape with personal trainer Ben Owen of Fast way to fitness and will be testing at the Cheshire circuit at the end of the month.

Returning racer Ben Hingeley made it an extremely impressive opening day of the 2016 Duo BRDC British Formula 3 Autumn Trophy proceedings as he claimed a clean sweep of afternoon practice sessions on Thursday, ensuring he only failed to top the timing screens in one of the four hour-long sessions across the day.

As the action resumed after lunch, the drivers in the field were keen to get in as many laps as possible with Hingeley, who has joined Fortec Motorsports for this weekend, setting the initial pace. Double R Racing’s Dan Ticktum soon took over at the top though ahead of his Kiwi team-mate Marcus Armstrong, the 16-year-old just 0.082s slower in second.

As the third session moved into its closing stages, Ticktum continued to lead the way from Armstrong with South African Callan O’Keeffe moving ahead of his Fortec team-mate Hingeley into third. German F4 Champion Joey Mawson was fourth with Reddy fifth, as just eight-tenths of a second covered the top 11 drivers. It looked like the order would remain that way but on his very last lap of the session, BRDC British F3 podium finisher Hingeley pulled out a superb lap, touring the 300 circuit in 1m43.271s, to claim top spot.

The final hour-long session of the day had a familiar feel to it as the Double R pairing of Armstrong and Ticktum were spotted at the top of the timing screens early on, with the Carlin duo of James Pull and US F4 Champion Cameron Das showing well in the top-five.

Hingeley soon got into the fight for top spot, bettering the mark set by Enaam Ahmed, who briefly led the way, by just 0.004s as the session moved past its halfway point. 16-year-old Das was not done there though and the impressive youngster jumped ahead of the rest of the field with 15 minutes remaining, a 1m43.756s putting him 0.056s clear of Tarun Reddy who moved into second and 0.091s clear of Carlin team-mate Pull in third.

That led to a flurry of activity as every driver seemed intent on showing just how fast they could go, leading to a fascinating last 10 minutes of running in the day. Eventually, after it had all shaken out, it was that man Hingeley who was once again leading the way on a 1m43.227s. That was just 0.069s clear of both Joey Mawson and Callan O’Keeffe, with the pair setting identical times.

Dan Ticktum was only two tenths shy of the leader but had to settle for fourth with Ahmed fifth, Reddy sixth and Pull seventh. Such was the close nature of the field, less than a second covered Hingeley in first down to Armstrong in 11th.

Friday’s testing action begins at 09:30 with four, 30-minute sessions scheduled throughout the day. You can follow all the action through live timing and updates on the official British F3 website.