John Bennett enjoyed one of the best weekends of his still-young motorsport career at Silverstone this past weekend (27/28 July), claiming his third GB3 Championship win of the season to move right onto the tail of the series lead with two rounds to go.
The Salisbury-based rising star entered the sixth round of the season on the back of a strong run of recent form across the European leg, climbing into the top four of the Drivers’ Championship with a brilliant win last time out at Zandvoort.
Next on the calendar was a return trip to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, where Bennett claimed pole position just over a year ago. After encouraging pace shown across two days of testing prior to the weekend, the JHR Developments driver hoped to convert that speed into a lofty grid slot in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Under sunny skies in Northampton, Bennett thrived against the stopwatch and charged his way up the timesheets on his second run with a mighty brace of laps to secure fourth on the grid for the opening contest - with his second-best effort enough to start race two from third spot.
Later that Saturday, Bennett put together a sterling performance in the first of the weekend’s three sprint races. Gaining a place from fourth at the start, Bennett found a slipstream behind his two rivals ahead and boldly went for a gap through the middle on the run up to Stowe corner. Braking later, Bennett bravely rounded title rival Louis Sharp at the fast right-hander to grab the lead, pulling clear immediately.
A safety car interruption wiped his cushion away, but it did not deter him as he gapped Sharp on the restart and held on to claim his third victory of the season, trimming the points deficit ahead of Sunday’s double-header.
From third place on the grid for race two, Bennett almost repeated his dynamic move with a great run onto the Hangar Straight for the first time, but he settled into third place after a squeeze on the outside of Stowe corner.
He maintained his position to the chequered flag to add podium number eight to his season tally, closing the deficit even further in the Drivers' Championship in what was proving to be a mixed weekend for his title rivals.
Bennett's biggest challenge was starting from ninth in the final race, which featured a partially-reversed grid. Another rapid start meant he climbed up to seventh spot in the early laps, before dispatching Noah Ping with another bold move at Stowe on lap four for sixth.
Next on his list was JHR team-mate Pat Heuzenroeder, of whom he passed at the Club chicane to grab fifth place. A post-race penalty for another driver promoted him to fourth, completing his best ever GB3 weekend and moving him up to second in the championship standings, just four points shy of the overall lead.
John Bennett: “Without doubt that's the best weekend ever for me. To come away with the most points scored out of everyone is fantastic and exactly what I needed for the championship battle.
"Realistically, this I thought was one of our weaker tracks. The car wasn't as strong here, but we made it work and to go from P4 to P1 in the first race was just mega. We got another important podium in race two and then in the last race we climbed up the order to fourth which was amazing for us.
"The move in race one I could see opening up so I went for it and braked as late as I could, and it paid off which felt so good. I had a bit of deja vu in race two with a good exit at Chapel, but it didn't quite happen. I have no complaints though, everything came together so well this weekend.
"Donington is one of my favourite circuits too so that gives us confidence, and now we know we can go and try to win the title which is the ultimate goal."
Only two events remain of the 2024 GB3 Championship season, with the penultimate round coming up at Donington Park (07/08 September), before the finale on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit (28/29 September).
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
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