Victorious Dash Through The Ash

The 2010 European Open F3 Championship burst into life in the most difficult circumstances for Motul Team West-Tec on 16-18 April, with the volcanic ash leading to travel chaos.

Expecting an enjoyable and competitive weekend in sunny climes, it soon became clear at Birmingham airport on early Thursday morning that things weren’t going to plan as, one-by-one, all viable methods of flying to Spain were cancelled by the volcanic ash from Iceland. It also became clear very quickly that this was also going to totally scupper any chance of Icelandic driver Kristjan Einar getting to the circuit at all, and thus a small crew immediately set off for Valencia by car.

A mammoth 23 hour journey followed, with crew and remaining driver, Callum Macleod, finally arriving at 5.30 am on Friday – just four hours before free practice was due to start – having driven through the night without sleep.

On the Thursday the hard worked team truckie had managed to do a great job in unloading the team transporter, setting up the garage and finishing the final car preparations - all by himself!

This allowed Callum to go straight into Free Practice where, amazingly, he finished quickest in the first session! He was able to maintain his competitiveness in the next session before the team eased off for the day, electing to miss the fourth and final free practice session in order to get some much needed sleep.

Saturday dawned wet, and Callum was cautious in qualifying, winding up third quickest on the grid for the first race that afternoon.

In that race, still wet, Callum made a lightning start to lead into the first corner before being forced to cede to the local category veteran, and Renault World Series refugee, Marco Barba.

The two cars pulled away to lead by a substantial margin before it became clear that both had similar pace and they relaxed a little, to finish the race in that order and well clear of their pursuers, led by Italian Kevin Ceccon.

Sunday was again wet and Callum was in determined mood for the reverse grid encounter where he again got away well, to keep Barba behind this time. Very impressively picking his way past the four cars ahead of him, Callum finally hit the front on lap nine, a position he was able to hold to the flag to give him a near perfect start to his Championship challenge – in the most trying of circumstances!

Callum Macleod: What a great result! For a while we thought we wouldn’t be able to race at all, and we drove all night to then race all weekend with a crew of just three others and me. After that we were aiming just to stay out of trouble and get some solid results but to win was unbelievable and I have to thank the crew who have worked amazingly hard and well as well as those who couldn’t get here but had provided a near-perfect car set up to allow me to do the job.

John Miller, Co-Team Principal: Despite the frustration of having to sit and home and spend a lot of the weekend on the phone, I was very proud of the results Callum and the crew achieved and this is a superb start to our expanded partnership with Motul. In the face of adversity, true grit and determination shone through!