Macintyre leads Snetterton GB3 test, Wilson quickest in GB4

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Four teams took part in a two-day GB3 test at Snetterton this week, and Hitech GP’s Will Macintyre was fastest.

Macintyre topped the timesheets in all six of the sessions he participated in, setting his best lap in the fifth of those on Thursday to end the test 0.234 seconds ahead of team-mate Tymek Kucharczyk in second place.

Kucharczyk set an early benchmark of 1m46.758s in Wednesday’s opening session and lowered the pace several times before Macintyre grabbed top spot just past the 15-minute mark with a 1m41.527s. He improved to 1m41.045s, which went unbeaten, while Bennett demoted Kucharczyk to third.

The top three remained the same in session two, with Macintyre over 0.3s clear with a 1m40.664s. He did not improve further in session three but his 1m41.233s was good enough to lead Bennett and Elite Motorsport’s Jarrod Waberski.

Bennett was one of many to improve in session four and was second again ahead of team-mate Josh Irfan and Kucharczyk, both also setting personal bests, while Macintyre was quickest by 0.055s but slower than previously.

Hitech locked out the top three in Thursday’s first session, with Macintyre setting his test-topping 1m40.526s in the closing stages to lead team-mates Gerrard Xie and Kucharczyk. Macintyre posted a 1m40.729s in the following session to be fastest again, while Kucharczyk and Bennett set personal bests to end up close behind.

With Hitech’s drivers sitting out the final two sessions, Irfan fractionally bettered his own pace to lead Bennett by 0.162s in session seven. Only six drivers took part in the final session, topped by Bennett. His session six best put him third overall. Xie ended the test in fourth ahead of Irfan and Waberski, who was one of five drivers not to improve on day two. 

USF2000 race-winner Jacob Douglas tested for Chris Dittmann Racing and the New Zealander posted his best effort in session four to be 10th.

Six drivers were on track in GB4, and Arden’s Leon Wilson was quickest ahead of Elite’s Finn Harrison and Alisha Palmowski. Wilson set the Wednesday pace, a 1m49.088s lap in session two leaving him 0.064s clear of Harrison, while Palmowski was third despite topping the other three sessions.

Harrison led Palmowski in three of Thursday’s sessions, the pair separated by 0.034s as they dipped under Wilson’s benchmark in session five. Having missed three sessions, Wilson posted the fastest time of the test, a 1m48.541s, in the final session, as Harrison and Palmowski did not improve on their earlier bests.

Elite ran a third car for an undisclosed karting graduate who set their best lap in session eight to end the test within 0.849s of the pace in fourth.

Test results