Kucharczyk takes win and GB3 points lead in chaotic Zandvoort race two

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Hitech GP’s Tymek Kucharczyk won a restarted and shortened GB3 race two at Zandvoort while his main title rivals crashed out.

A startline incident led to a lengthy stoppage and a full restart. Elite Motorsport’s Hugo Schwarze moved in between Hitech duo Gerrard Xie and Will Macintyre before the trio tangled, and title contender Macintyre was then collected by Velocity Racing Development by Arden’s Noah Ping as he speared across into the pitwall.

Having made a poor getaway and slipped to sixth, JHR Developments’ John Bennett was handed a second chance to start from pole. But he was slow away again when the race eventually got underway, dropping to third behind Kucharczyk and points leader Louis Sharp, but there was soon another twist in the title race.

Arthur Rogeon had a trip through the turn one gravel trap on lap two after a battle with VRD’s Shawn Rashid, and moments later his Rodin Motorsport team-mate Sharp retired at turn three while battling with Bennett, who suffered front wing damage.

That caused a brief safety car period, with Kucharczyk quickly building a three-second lead once the action got back underway while Hedley grabbed second from the struggling Bennett who pitted at the end of the lap for a new front wing.

The race was shortened to nine laps in duration, with Kucharczyk taking his fourth win by 7.4s from Hedley, who was initially handed a 10s penalty shortly afterwards for jumping the start before the decision was overturned.

Elite’s McKenzy Cresswell was promoted to second ahead of Fortec Motorsports’ Colin Queen, who took advantage of the chaos in front of him to climb from 12th on the grid to fourth, having passed VRD’s Nikita Johnson and JHR’s Patrick Heuzenroeder after the safety car restart.

Having intially gained 10 places to finish behind Heuzenroeder and Johnson, Cresswell’s team-mate Jarrod Waberski was also awarded a 10s penalty for jumping the start. Chris Dittmann Racing’s Seb Murray was therefore moved up to seventh ahead of Fortec’s Edward Pearson.

Rogeon was another to be penalised for a jumped start, with JHR’s Josh Irfan promoted three places to ninth in the final classification ahead of Hillspeed’s Aditya Kulkarni.

Race results (9 laps)