Simon Armer

MARCH 703

The freezing temperatures, salted track and white perimeter were an alarming prospect for the Formula 3 racers on Sunday morning but Simon Armer was one of the 11 who braved the conditions to take a close third.

“It didn’t look too bad but it proved incredibly slippery,” recalls Armer. “You just couldn’t get any heat into the tyres, which resulted in no warning before spinning. I had several lurid moments so drove cautiously for the early laps. Then I tried to catch Thierry Gallo’s Tecno, but as soon as I closed he pulled away. Then I nearly went off at St Mary’s, a place you definitely don’t want to go off, and decided to play it safe.”

It’s appropriate that Armer races a March because his hero was Ronnie Peterson. “The perception of the 703 is that it’s an underdog and too heavy, but it’s a lot better than that,” he says. “Once March got it sorted, the 703 was actually pretty successful. It prefers shorter circuits because the aero struggles in a straight line. Our pre-season testing was also snowed off and running new tyres was difficult, so we were pleased with the result.”

Armer stepped up from a Formula Junior Cooper T59 to Historic F2 in 2012 with the ex-tom Walkinshaw 703-2 and hasn’t looked back, taking the HSCC Championship in 2016: “Growing up in the north-west, Oulton Park was nearest and I love 1960s single-seaters.”