The final round of the 2004 British F3 Championship was held at Brands Hatch over the weekend where talented young Aussie, Will Power raced his final British F3 race with team Alan Docking Racing and although he didn’t get a strong result, the end of the season marks two years of racing outside of Australia for Will and he is able to look back at this as an accomplishment in itself.

Will’s blue and white Dallara finished 12th fastest in Friday practice and Will matched this result in qualifying one when he set a time of 42.521 around the tiny track, 5 tenths of pole position in an incredibly close session marred with one red flag and a shower of rain.ÿ Before qualifying two the number 10 car’s set-up was totally changed in a bid to improve on 12th place, but as the session drew to a close Will found himself 11th fastest with a time of 42.717, this time only 3 tenths off pole.

Sunday brought cold weather and little wind to take the rain clouds away.ÿ Race one got off to a rocky start for Will when his engine cover came off on the warm up lap forcing him to travel slowly around the track when he should have been testing his slick tyres on the wet and drying surface.ÿ The cover was taped together on the grid and Will got away with an electric start moving him up the field.ÿ However a mistake on the slippery tyres into turn three meant Will pushed Rob Austin off the track only to be hit from behind by Danilo Dirani and the three ended up in the grass.ÿ Will the only one sustaining damage with a bent front left suspension, was unable to continue.

“I went in too deep and got caught out with the slicks on the wet track and unfortunately, Rob Austin was in front of me.ÿ I think someone went into the back of me as they came around also – and that was the end of my race” said Will.

Race two was much longer for Will and although Marco Asmer stalled on the grid in front of him, he managed to get by without losing too much time and made his way up to 8th place in the first lap.ÿ Will was pumping out some good lap times until he caught Andrew Thompson who was battling with Danny Watts for 6th.ÿ Will decided to try and have a go at Thompson on the last lap and Asmer took advantage, passing him and taking 8th place away. Will finished the season 9th in the Championship.

“I worked very hard the whole race but it was a tough weekend, we struggled with under-steer the whole time. We seemed to be just out of the top ten no matter what we did.” Explained Will afterwards.

Will has now completed two years of British Formula three, an achievement in itself considering the budget woes and the up’s and down’s Will has experienced since leaving Australia to make an international name for himself, in 2003.ÿ He will stay in the UK until the end of November when he will test for the Minardi F1 team and in the meantime is working on getting a drive for next year.

“The year started off really good and although it didn’t end too fantastically, I have learnt a lot and enjoyed it overall – the ADR team and I worked hard all year and I have to thank them for that.ÿ I believe that compared with the testing and budgets most other teams had; we did a pretty good job, especially at the start of the year.ÿ It was only the last three rounds where we were not on the pace, everywhere else we were up there.” Commented Will on the 2004 season.

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