British F3 Scholarship Showdown at Brands

19 September 2003

Three drivers will go head to head for the British F3 Scholarship title in the final pair of races at Brands Hatch on Sunday 28 September. The deciding races in an absorbing season-long contest will be one of the major highlights of the concluding races in the 2003 British F3 Championship gripped by AVON Tyres title.

Following the most recent races at Donington Park, Ernesto Viso (P1 Motorsport) has taken a slender points lead over Steven Kane (T-Sport), and just one and a half points split them heading into the Brands races. The third contender is Karun Chandhok (T-Sport), but he has now dropped to 19 points adrift of his team mate Kane. However, with a total of 42 points available for a double win with two fastest laps at Brands, the contest remains wide open.

The contest has even greater significance for Kane, as he will clinch the £100,000 prize from the British Racing Drivers' Club if he wins the Scholarship title. The Northern Ireland racer is the only British driver in the trio, and so is the only one eligible for the BRDC award that is intended to support a Scholarship driver's graduation to the Championship class in 2004.

Teenager Viso has been one of the revelations of the British F3 season, but it all started badly for him at Donington back in April when he twice failed to finish after getting tangled up in other people's incidents. Since that opening weekend of the season, the Venezuelan has been fighting to claw back the points deficit to Kane and Chandhok and finally took the championship lead in the second race at Donington in early September. Viso has now taken five wins and three seconds in the last eight British F3 races and will arrive at Brands with his confidence high.

However, Kane and Chandhok are equally strong racers and have both enjoyed superb Scholarship seasons. Irishman Kane has now won six times this season and recently revealed that he has gained support from former World Champion Damon Hill in his bid to make it to the top of the sport.

Chandhok, meanwhile, has suffered badly as a result of a non-finish in the opening Donington race when he was caught up in a midfield tangle at the first corner. The Indian racer has consistently headed the title race with seven wins to date this season, but that one non-finish has left him with the most to do at Brands.

In truth, any one of these three drivers would be a worthy and deserving Scholarship champion as they have all proved themselves as excellent prospects this season. Already, all three are strong candidates to move up and contest the championship class of British F3 next season, so there is every chance that their rivalry will continue beyond the end of the 2003 season.

The current points are:
1 Ernesto Viso (P1 Motorsport) 303
2 Steven Kane (T-Sport) 301.5
3 Karun Chandhok (T-Sport) 282.5

Scholarship class points are awarded in each race on the basis of 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 with an additional point for fastest lap.

See series calendar for British GT Championship | British F3 Championship

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