Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Rodin Carlin’s John Bennett felt his performance at the most recent GB3 round at Silverstone was “a massive step forward”, despite having his first two wins taken away.
Bennett took his first two GB3 poles at Silverstone and converted them both into victories, but was subsequently demoted to second in race one for overtaking Joseph Loake off the track in treacherous conditions and to fourth in race two for a collision with Alex Dunne.
Despite the double disappointment, Bennett said it was still a positive weekend, having bounced back from a tough opener at Oulton Park where a couple of mistakes in qualifying had left him on the back foot.
“It was amazing, still,” Bennett told Formula Scout. “A massive, massive step forward. Oulton, I came out 19th in the championship, now I think I’m seventh. It’s a huge jump.
“There was a lot of expectation on me, put on by myself and other people. I wanted to be at the sharp end from round one and there was no reason why I shouldn’t have been. It was super important to bounce back from that and get my confidence back up.”
Bennett held his hand up for the contact which put Dunne out of race two at Silverstone, having slid wide on a damp patch on slick tyres at Brooklands while defending against the Hitech GP driver. But, having experienced the feeling of winning on the road twice, he says his mentality will be different going forwards.
“Two wins, I didn’t end up with either of them. If [you’d told me] I’d come away with a second and fourth after Oulton I would have taken them, it’s just how quickly circumstances change. I think there’s so many positives to take from the weekend. Double pole, no one can take that away.
“Race one was disappointing to lose the win from that one, but race two it was a deserved penalty, I just lost it on a damp patch on the inside.
“You always want to get your first win and until then you are chasing something you haven’t done, whereas now I’ve done it twice. Now I know how to win, I know what it takes and it’s just taking that into future rounds.”
Having shown his pace in all kinds of conditions at Silverstone, Bennett feels prepared for this weekend’s round at Spa-Francorchamps, which is also notorious for changeable weather.
“I know I showed my pace in every condition. I won [on the road] in that super-wet race one. Race two was damp on slicks and then race three 19th to 11th when it was dry.
“Whatever Spa throws at us I’m sure we’re ready. Confidence is higher than ever now. I love the track, I’m really looking forward to it.”