Rising star Tom Lebbon will head into the final round of the GB3 Championship presented by the BRDC season firmly in contention for a top three finish after battling his way to a third win of the campaign at Brands Hatch.
The We Finance Any Car-backed driver headed to famous Kent circuit on the back of a race-winning weekend at Silverstone that had allowed him to strengthen his place inside the top six in the standings with just two meetings left to run.
Having shown solid pace during Friday testing on the shorter Indy layout, Tom was in fine form in qualifying when the action reverted to the full Grand Prix circuit for the race weekend – setting the fastest time late on to grab pole position.
Although an unfortunate penalty carried over from the previous meeting would leave Tom to start race one from sixth on the grid, his second fastest time would be good enough to put him at the head of the field for race two.
The opening race would be prove to be a relatively straightforward affair for Tom, as he held station at the start and would remain in sixth spot right the way through to the finish to put a solid haul of points on the board.
Keen to make the most of pole for race two, Tom kept Alex Rees at bay on the opening lap to retain his advantage at the head of the field and was able to manage proceedings from the front to take victory ahead of championship leader Luke Browning.
The reverse grid final race would be halted after an early incident, with Tom lining up at the rear of the field after his qualifying performance for a shortened ten lap battle.
Forced to make an unscheduled pitstop early on after hitting debris on circuit, Tom would end up back in 18th spot and whilst that meant he was unable to score, he ends the weekend fifth in the points – but only 17.5 points away from the top three.
One round remains at Donington Park next month.
“The penalty we carried over from Silverstone was frustrating but as far as I was concerned, we scored a double pole this weekend which is fantastic, and showed how things have really clicked recently,” Tom said.
“We didn’t quite have the pace in race one to make up ground after the penalty which was a shame, but we made up for it in race two. The speed was much better and it allowed me to hold off Rees at the start and then Browning as the race went on.
“To now have three wins this season – and two wins in as many meetings – is great and morale is definitely up in the team, so hopefully we can end the year well at Donington next month.”
