BROWNING BAGS THE TITLE A RACE EARLY IN TENSE AND DRAMATIC FINALE
Luke Browning wrapped up the GB3 championship title at Donington Park, the Hitech Grand Prix racer resolving his season-long battle with Fortec’s Joel Granfors a race early by finishing second in a chaotic damp-but-drying second race of the triple-header finale while his rival dropped back with a severe shortage of rear grip.
Granfors had led the early going in that race, spectacularly seizing the lead from fourth on the grid with a good launch then driving around the outside of Elite’s Tom Lebbon at the opening turn. Browning meanwhile had hung back early on, and stated afterwards that he was “tyre saving right from the go”.
And it was soon clear that Granfors wasn’t getting away in first, and Lebbon indeed reclaimed the lead from him on the third lap, taking the outside line at the Melbourne Hairpin which gave him the inside at Goddards.
Browning had by this point got up the third from starting fifth – making up the two places when Carlin’s Callum Voisin and Elite’s John Bennett collided exiting Melbourne Hairpin – and he too was swiftly shadowing the bynow-struggling Granfors. He got past for second with a dive-bomb move at Goddards at one-third’s distance. Granfors soon was dropping rapidly down the order and he finished 13th.
Browning meanwhile kept circulating to come home second and seal the title, although the late laps were made more exciting by that the small number who had started the drying race on slicks – Browning’s team-mates Bryce Aron and Cian Shields plus JHR’s Matthew Rees – started lapping several seconds faster than their wet-shod rivals. Aron indeed finished third just
0.7 seconds off Browning, while the dominant Lebbon took the win.
Browning told Motorsport News: “That was chaos wasn’t it? But it worked out. Absolutely elation in the team and couldn’t be more happy.
“I couldn’t see Joel in the rear mirrors so I thought I had a good chance [of the title], but then when I saw on the board that I was leading the championship where I was, I chilled out and looked forward to the end. Wet in-between weather always saves me, it’s been a crucial part of my career so far, and it’s come into play again.”
Granfors told MN: “After like two laps I started feeling the rear going more and more and then it was like the rear tyre was absolutely gone.
“It was so much oversteer, I’ve never had that much oversteer in my entire career really. So I have a tough time believing that I destroyed the tyres that bad, especially when it came at the beginning as well.
“Tough race but congratulations to Luke for winning the championship, it’s been a fair and a tight fight all year, so he deserves it.”
This all followed a dry race one the previous day that was won by Voisin from pole while Browning finished second and Granfors fifth.
The title protagonist duo had for that started only fifth and eighth after a drying qualifying session – Granfors ruing an error on his best lap – and they ran fourth and sixth early on, in both cases with Browning ahead.
Both gained a place in the course of the race and Browning then got a boost as all crossed the line at the end as second-on-the-road Lebbon got a five-second penalty for track limits, This elevated Browning to second and dropped Lebbon between Browning and his title rival, with the Elite man just a tenth ahead of Granfors.
Hillspeed’s Nick Gilkes won the season-closing reversed-grid race, leading all the way from Shields. Granfors and Browning climbed to fifth and seventh respectively.