2012 Australian Drivers' Championship

The 2012 Formula 3 Australian Drivers' Championship was a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title with the winner awarded the 2012 CAMS Gold Star award. The 2012 championship was the 56th Australian Drivers' Championship and the eighth to be contested with open wheel racing cars constructed in accordance with FIA Formula 3 regulations. The 2012 Australian Formula 3 Championship title was also awarded to the series winner.[1] The championship began on 1 March 2012 at the Adelaide Street Circuit and ended on 23 September at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit after seven rounds across six different states with three races at each round.

The championship was secured by British driver James Winslow after the penultimate round held at Queensland Raceway. It was Winslow's second championship victory after having won previously in 2008. Winslow, driving for R-Tek Motorsport, won 13 of the 21 races, including five of the seven feature races, over the course of the season, a new record for the Australian Drivers' Championship, eclipsing the 12 wins Rick Kelly took in 2001. Defending champion Chris Gilmour ended the series in second place having won two races. Winslow's teammate Steel Giuliania finished third in the championship with just over half of the points Winslow collected. Jordan Skinner of Team BRM and Hayden Cooper of BF Racing each collected a their debut race victories. The other races wins were collected by John Magro whose partial season campaign with Team BRM ended with winning the Hidden Valley round. Tim Macrow made a brief return to the series he won in 2007, contesting a single round with Astuti Motorsport, winning at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Cooper won the National Class, for cars built between 1999 and 2004, over fellow Queensland and BF Racing teammate Ben Gersekowski. Lochie Marshall finished third.

Race calendar

The Dallara F307 Mercedes-Benz of John Magro, who placed sixth in the championship

The championship was contested over a seven-round series,[2] with two Sprint Races and a Feature Race at each round.[3]

Round Circuit Date Winner
1 South Australia Adelaide Street Circuit 1–4 March James Winslow
2 Tasmania Symmons Plains Raceway 30 March–1 April James Winslow
3 New South Wales Mount Panorama Circuit 6–8 April James Winslow
4 Northern Territory Hidden Valley Raceway 15–17 June John Magro
5 New South Wales Eastern Creek Raceway 13–15 July Tim Macrow
6 Queensland Queensland Raceway 3–5 August James Winslow
7 Victoria (state) Phillip Island 21–23 September Chris Gilmour

Teams and drivers

The Dallara F307 Mugen Honda of Matt Sofi, who placed eleventh in the championship

The following teams and drivers contested the 2012 Australian Drivers' Championship. Entries sourced in part from:[4]

Team Class Chassis Engine No. Driver
Gilmour Racing Gold Star Dallara F307 HWA-Mercedes-Benz 1 Australia Chris Gilmour
Astuti Motorsport Gold Star Dallara F307 Mugen-Honda 2 Australia Mat Sofi
Sodemo-Renault 11 New Zealand Chris Vlok
Australia Tim Macrow
Australia Nathan Morcom
Team BRM Gold Star Dallara F307 HWA-Mercedes-Benz 3 Australia John Magro
4 Australia Jordan Skinner
5 Australia Nick Foster
R-Tek Motorsport Gold Star Dallara F307 HWA-Mercedes-Benz 6 United Kingdom James Winslow
7 Australia Steel Giuliana
National Dallara F304 Spiess-Opel 8 Australia Chris Slusarski
Australia Mike Wayne
Australia Jon Collins
9 Australia Adrian Cottrell
Australia Adam Gill
Australia Jon Collins
Marshall Motorsport National Dallara F304 Sodemo-Renault 22 Australia Lockie Marshall
Mills Motorsport Gold Star Mygale M07 HWA-Mercedes-Benz 32 Australia Jon Mills
BF Racing National Dallara F304 Spiess-Opel 42 Australia Ben Gersekowski
93 Australia Hayden Cooper
Harvest Motorsport Gold Star Mygale M10 HWA-Mercedes-Benz 46 Australia Roman Krumins
Snake Racing National Dallara F304 Sodemo-Renault 66 Australia Nathan Gotch
G-Force Motorsport Gold Star Mygale M07 HWA-Mercedes-Benz 77 Australia Cam Waters
Australia Jake Fouracre

Classes

Competing cars were nominated into one of three classes:[5]

  • Australian Formula 3 Championship – for automobiles constructed in accordance with the FIA Formula 3 regulations that applied in the year of manufacture between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2011.[5]
  • National Class – for automobiles constructed in accordance with the FIA Formula 3 regulations that applied in the year of manufacture between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2004.[5]
  • Invitation Class.[5]

There were no competitors in the Invitation Class in the 2012 championship.

Points system

Championship points were awarded as follows:

  • One point to the driver placed in the highest grid position for the first race at each round.[5]
  • 12–9–8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1 for the first ten finishing position in each Sprint Race.[5]
  • 20–15–12–10–8–6–4–3–2–1 for the first ten finishing position in each Feature Race.[5]
  • One point to the driver setting the fastest lap time in each race.[5]

Points towards the National Class award were allocated on the same basis as used for the outright championship.[5]

Results

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver ADE
1 		ADE
2 		ADE
3 		SYM
1 		SYM
2 		SYM
3 		BAT
1 		BAT
2 		BAT
3 		HID
1 		HID
2 		HID
3 		EAS
1 		EAS
2 		EAS
3 		QLD
1 		QLD
2 		QLD
3 		PHI
1 		PHI
2 		PHI
3 		Pts
GOLD STAR
1 United Kingdom James Winslow 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 2 5 1 2 2 1 1 1 8 3 1 276
2 Australia Chris Gilmour 3 3 3 4 3 2 4 2 2 1 5 2 3 4 4 6 3 2 1 4 2 215
3 Australia Steel Giuliania 9 10 9 2 4 5 Ret 8 6 6 4 3 4 3 3 2 2 3 2 Ret 3 141
4 Australia Jordan Skinner 4 4 5 3 5 4 1 Ret 8 5 6 7 Ret 5 5 3 4 6 111
5 Australia Hayden Cooper 8 7 4 6 8 7 7 7 5 9 9 9 5 8 6 5 5 4 3 1 Ret 109
6 Australia John Magro 6 5 7 Ret 2 3 Ret 4 Ret 2 1 1 88
7 Australia Ben Gersekowski 5 8 Ret Ret 7 8 6 5 4 10 7 8 6 Ret 8 4 7 DNS Ret 6 6 75
8 Australia Lockie Marshall 7 8 6 8 10 7 7 6 5 4 7 5 57
9 Australia Tim Macrow 2 1 1 44
10 Australia Adrian Cottrell Ret Ret 6 5 6 6 5 6 7 38
11 Australia Mat Sofi 2 2 2 35
12 Australia Nick Foster 3 3 3 28
13 Australia Cam Waters 4 3 4 25
14 Australia Nathan Morcom 5 5 4 22
15 Australia Jon Collins DNS 7 9 8 9 8 Ret Ret 7 18
Australia Roman Krumins 9 8 7 7 8 9 18
17 Australia Jake Fouracre 6 2 8 17
18 Australia Nathan Gotch 8 9 Ret 7 6 10 15
19 Australia Mike Wayne 7 9 9 8 10 10 10 Ret DNS 14
20 New Zealand Chris Vlok 7 6 Ret 9
21 Australia Chris Slusarski 10 9 8 6
22 Australia Jon Mills 8 Ret Ret DNS DNS DNS Ret Ret DNS 3
23 Australia Adam Gill Ret 9 Ret 2
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver Second place
Bronze Third place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Retired (Ret)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not practice (DNP)
Did not arrive (DNA)
Excluded (EX)

See also

References

  1. ^ 2016 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport – Australian Titles, docs.cams.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org
  2. ^ SpeedCafe (28 November 2011). "Formula 3 gets four V8 events on 2012 calendar". Speedcafe. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  3. ^ 2012 Results, www.formula3.com.au, as archived at www.webcitation.org Retrieved on 21 November 2012
  4. ^ www.natsoft.com.au
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 2012 Australian Formula 3 Championship Sporting and Technical Regulations, www.formula3.com.au, as archived at www.webcitation.org Retrieved on 21 November 2012