Louis Sharp retained his place at the top of the GB3 Championship standings after a pair of third-place finishes in the opening two races at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps overnight.
Having qualified third for both races, Sharp retained his position in each nine-lap encounter to enter this evening’s finale with an eight-point lead over Hitech’s Tymek Kucharczyk.
Kucharczyk won both of Saturday’s races to vault to second in the standings at the expense of Rodin Motorsport’s Ugo Ugochukwu dropping to third off the back of two fourth-placed finishes.
JHR Developments’ John Bennett was second in races one and two, while Hitech’s Will MacIntyre’s pair of fifths made for the same top five in each race.
Kucharczyk dominated proceedings in a damp opener, leading from pole to the chequered flag. Bennett withstood consistent pressure from Sharp to finish 1.8 seconds behind the leader. Ugochukwu was just under 2 seconds off Sharp, who extended his championship advantage by three points with the podium.
“It was a good drive. Obviously, it was wet today, so it was a bit different to qualifying yesterday,” the Kiwi said following the race. “We’ve had plenty of wet running here in testing, so I knew what to expect.
“The top three were all pretty similar pace. I had a look at P2 in the first couple of laps and thought I had the pace to do it later on, but as the race evened out, we all kind of settled into a similar pace.
“There’s not much I could have done, but at the end of the day, it’s still really good points on the board, and I made no mistakes, so I can’t complain.”
Bennett started Race 2 from the pole and kept Kucharczyk at bay over the opening laps, with Sharp putting pressure on the leaders.
The Polish driver would take the lead shortly before the first of two Safety Car interventions when Patrick Heuzenroeder stopped at Turn 12. The VRD Racing entry driven by Nikita Johnson, who also leads the USF Pro 2000 Championship in the United States, also began having problems, with the American running as high as fifth.
Kucharczyk looked to break away from the restart as Sharp pressured Bennett at La Source, but contact directly behind between McKenzy Cresswell and Noah Ping forced both out, and the Safety Car immediately back out.
The race would not resume, with Kucharczyk winning from Bennett and Sharp behind the Safety Car.
“It was a good race, P3 again,” said Sharp. “We didn’t get many racing laps which is a little bit unfortunate, but it was close at the end. I had a go at P2 on that last lap after the restart. But there wasn’t much I could do with the two down the straight. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the tow from the car in front, so I wasn’t quite able to get through, but overall, it’s more good points, and I can’t complain too much.
“John dropped back a bit so he wouldn’t have had much of a strong tow from Tymek, and I was right behind him, so I was sat in there smiling to myself, thinking I’d get him on the next lap.
“Unfortunately, it went to a safety car, so it’s a bit unfortunate that we didn’t get to complete a full racing lap after that. So it was tough with all the safety cars and yellow flags, but it’s still good points.
“Tomorrow will be good. I’m yet to make an overtake in the two races, so I need to figure that one out! I nearly did, I was up the inside of John into the first corner, but wasn’t quite able to make it stick.
“Having the reverse grid tomorrow and fighting through the pack is going to be cool, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Race 3, the final of the round, begins at 11.50 pm NZST and will be live-streamed on YouTube.
