Hitech’s Macintyre wins GB3’s chaotic reversed-grid Spa race

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Will Macintyre took his third GB3 victory in an incident-filled reversed-grid race at Spa-Francorchamps, as Tymek Kucharczyk claimed the points lead.

Hitech GP completed a clean-sweep of wins across the weekend by scoring a one-two finish, with Macintyre leading home Gerrard Xie and Velocity Racing Development by Arden’s Noah Ping, while pre-race points leader Louis Sharp retired in a late incident.

Elite Motorsport’s Hugo Schwarze started on pole and led lap one ahead of Chris Dittmann Racing’s Seb Murray, who moved past Xie into second.

The trio went three-wide on the Kemmel Straight on lap two, with Xie snatching the lead while Schwarze and Murray collided at Les Combes, the latter spinning into the gravel and then later being black flagged for receiving outside assistance in rejoining the race.

JHR Developments’ John Bennett also retired in a separate incident at the same corner, resulting in the safety car being deployed.  

Racing resumed on lap four, and Macintyre passed Xie into Les Combes, while Sharp drove around the outside of Ping at Pouhon into third.

The race was then neutralised for a second time after VRD’s Shawn Rashid crashed out at La Source, with JHR’s Josh Ifran also pulling off the circuit with damage at Eau Rouge, and Nikita Johnson retiring in the pitlane with broken rear-left suspension.

The green flags were shown at the start of lap six, and there was more drama to follow. Ping tried to reclaim third from Sharp on the run to Les Combes, with the pair brushing wheels, and Sharp’s Rodin Motorsport team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu then made it three-wide.

The battle continued all the way to Bruxelles, where Ping chucked it down the inside of the Rodin pair, who both ran wide and collided, with Ugochuwko sent into the barriers and Sharp subsequently retiring in the pitlane with damage.

That resulted in the appearance of the safety car for a third time, with enough time for one more lap at the restart. Macintyre remained in front to win ahead of Xie and Ping, while Kucharczyk climbed from 12th on the grid to fourth.

CDR’s Kanato Le was fifth ahead of Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell and Schwarze. Rodin’s Arthur Rogeon finished eighth ahead of Fortec Motorsports’ Colin Queen and CDR’s Flynn Jackes.

Hillspeed’s Marcus Luzio finished one lap down in 15th after stalling at the start and then rejoining the race from the pitlane.

Race results (9 laps)