Johnathan Hoggard enjoyed another impressive weekend in the BRDC British F3 Championship as he stormed to a win and a second place at Brands Hatch.
The Weston Hills talent hogged the limelight in qualifying as he secured two pole positions, before winning the opening race with a lights to flag triumph.
Hoggard’s win ensured that he started race two from 16th place, but he still managed to steer his Fortec Motorsports car to a respectable 12th position.
Nazim Azman (Chris Dittman Racing) won that race, with team-mate Ayrton Simmons second and Josh Mason (Lanan) third.
Back on pole for the final race, Hoggard was jumped by Douglas Motorsport’s Kiern Jewiss at the start and was unable to get past his rival despite putting him under pressure for the entirity of the 14 laps.
His strong showing ensures that the South Holland speedster is now just 40 points behind series leader Clement Novalak with six races remaining.
After race three, Hoggard told BritishF3.com: “Really good results this weekend in terms of the championship, I’m a bit annoyed about my start but it’s just one of those things. I made a small mistake and that’s what cost me the race win.
“It’s really narrow with really high speed corners, so the dirty air plays a really big factor.
“No matter how close I got the front just washed away and I dropped back a couple of car lengths again.
“I need to focus on the last two rounds, and get some more good results for the championship.”
Hoggard’s highlight of the weekend was definitely his imperious victory in the opening race.
He made a great start from pole to hold a one second lead and then extended that to almost three seconds mid race.
Jewiss mounted a late challenge though to put pressure on the Fortec driver, and finished just 0.626 seconds behind at the chequered flag. Novalak completed the podium in third.
After winning race one, Hoggard added: “It was getting close towards the end but I didn’t want to take too many risks. I felt the tyres starting to go off a couple of laps before the end so I thought best to relax a little bit and save the tyres for the next race.
“There wasn’t really too much pressure from behind so it was alright in the end.
“I got a really good start and built a gap straight away on lap one.
“Then it was a case of just pumping in fast lap times to break away.”
The next round is at Silverstone (GP circuit) on August 17/18.
