Melbourne racing driver Dylan Young's European form has continued with another three podiums at the historical Le Mans Circuit in France in the Formula 3 Regional category of the Ultimate Cup Series from September 10-11.
Young finished in 3rd position for Race 1 before rising to 2nd place for Races 2 and 3 out of a field of 21 drivers. Remarkably, Dylan’s strong form has seen him stand on the podium in 11 out of his last 12 races, including his current run of 7 podiums in a row which has sent his international reputation climbing. Dylan is the only Australian in the field featuring drivers from the likes of the Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland and the United States.
The 4.185km Le Mans Bugatti Circuit, which incorporates part of the longer and famous Le Mans 24hr Circuit hosted a private test day on the Thursday prior to Friday’s Free Practice sessions. Unfortunately, Young wasn’t able to take part unlike most of the field so he went into Friday’s running having to get to grips with the circuit quickly.
Never the less, he was straight away into P2 despite only a few flying laps in the first session. With the second session being continuously red flagged due to incidents, it left him going into the final session before qualifying still trying to get accustomed to the undulating and extremely technical circuit. He finished in P2 again and was confident of a front row start in qualifying but encountered traffic on his key qualifying laps which would see him line up in 4th for the morning races.
Race 1 was marred by two safety car periods but Dylan managed to finish in 3rd place, just shy of former Formula 1 test driver Nicolas Prost, son of four time Formula One World Champion Alain Prost.
For Race 2, Young narrowly avoided carnage at Turn 1 and was in P2, hot on the heels of Nico Prost before another safety car period. On the restart, Dylan tried desperately to take the lead but had to settle for P2 at the chequered flag as the Formula 3 Regional car is notoriously difficult when following another car closely. Dylan's lap time matched Prost ahead, despite following closely which suggested had he not been in dirty air he would have been able to pull away in the lead.
For the final race, Young got a strong start from P2 but it wasn't quite enough to get past team mate van Hoepen at the start. Unfortunately on lap 3, part of the internal communication systems box dislodged in Young's cockpit and fell between the seat and his elbow, meaning he lost the maximum possible turning lock to the left. Young struggled for 3-4 laps to remove the box and fell back from the lead and was pressured heavily from behind. But once Dylan managed to remove the obstacle he pulled away comfortably from third place by 6 seconds but the gap to the front was too far and Young would finish with another 2nd place on the podium to complete the weekend.
The next round will be held at the former home of the French Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Magny Cours Circuit from October 15-17.
Dylan Young: "I'm pretty happy with my weekend at Le Mans with three podiums. I didn't know the track at all and because I missed the test day on Thursday and with such limited running on Friday I think it took me some time to get to grips with the circuit. The track is awesome and you can really attack the kerbs. But even more so, it's just such a historical place and I'm hoping like this weekend I'll be standing on the podium here in the future as a winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans!"
"Overall I want to thank my engineer Antoine and mechanic Sylvain along with all my sponsors and all the team and crew at Graff for another great weekend. It was great to have a full Graff podium in the last race and I'm looking forward to Many Cours next month!"
Dylan Young Racing is in partnership with:
My Muscle Chef, Dutton Group, AudioWhiz, Selby Acoustics, Bae Juice, Doer, Seek, M4 Software, Urban Maintenance Systems, Grip Auto & Insightful Intelligence
ENDS