Dragon Racing Newsletter #20 February 2017

NEWSLETTER #20/ FEBRUARY 2017

DRAGON F4 - DOUBLE PODIUM FOR PIASTRI

Dragon F4 driver Oscar Piastri completed his 2017 season preparations with a double podium at the Yas Marina GP circuit during Round 4 of the UAE Formula 4 Championship.
Coming into the race weekend strong from a brace of 4th placed finishes at the Dubai Autodrome in January, Piastri ensured that his progress continued at Yas Marina.
Utilising the UAE F4 series as a testing programme ahead of a full British F4 campaign the young Australian driver secured 2 second row starts with the third fastest time during qualifying.

Piastri came home 3rd in Race 1 snatching his and Dragon F4’s first podium of the campaign. Race 2 saw the reverse grid start with Piastri finishing 6th this time ahead of race 1 winner Jonathan Aberdein. Race 3 of the weekend saw Oscar starting third storm to the lead into turn one and pull a clear gap for the first half of the race, eventually Piastri finished third following a brilliant duel with Sergeant and Aberdein clinching his second podium of the weekend. Piastri rounded out his UAE F4 season with a 6 placed finish in the final race of the weekend.

“We are thrilled with the progress of Oscar over the 3 rounds he has raced with us” commented Dragon F4 Team Principle Brad Fincham. "We as a team and Oscar as a driver have delivered on the objectives we set before the first race, and Oscar now goes into the British F4 series as one of the favourites to win the championship following his pre-season preparation with Dragon F4."

Oscars winter UAE campaign has proved extremely valuable as he topped the most recent British F4 test at Brands Hatch. The young Australian was quick in all conditions, his best lap of 46.030s coming in the afternoon when conditions were at their best. That was enough to ensure he saw out the remainder of the test as quickest driver. The time was just two tenths shy of the 2016 pole lap. Click the button beneath to read the full Press Release.

UAE NATIONAL RACING SERIES REPORT

Dragon Racing drivers had to battle the weather as well as on-track competition in the most recent rounds of the NGK National Racing Series. Taking place on the challenging International derivative of the Dubai Autodrome on the 17th and 18th February the weather was strangely inclement, with a mixture of high winds, showery rain and dust storms making the 4.29km circuit very slippery indeed.

Providing the support act for the 'Lamborghini Super Trofeo Winter Series Middle East', Dragon stalwart Bill Martin returned to the cockpit of his Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport and our Chairman to his Ferrari 488 GT3 car. They were joined by Leon's son Josh making his motor racing debut at the wheel of our second Cayman GT4 Clubsport.

Despite an impressive qualifying performance, unfortunately Josh was caught out by the tricky conditions and spun into retirement however Bill and Leon upheld their recent run of great form taking class and overall victories respectively.

The next meeting in the NGK Series, running on the full Grand Prix circuit, takes place on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of March and unusually the race organizers are running both a 3 hour 'Endurance' race alongside a pair of 20 minute 'Sprint' format events - so a huge amount of track time is on offer.

As always, Dragon have a broad range of race cars to hire, so if any EU licenced competitors would like to take advantage of some sunny winter testing and racing under, hopefully, clear blue skies then please click the button beneath to inquire further.

DRAGON RACING MOTORSPORT WEDNESDAY'S

With only two Motorsport Wednesday events remaining in the 2016-2017 season all the team at Dragon would like to say a big "thank you" to the many drivers and teams who have actively supported this new initiative over the past five months here in the UAE.

Running alternating sessions for both open cockpit 'Formula' cars and closed cockpit 'GT' cars, our Motorsport Wednesdays offer relaxed and friendly track time for drivers of all levels of experience in a non-competitive environment. On the last Motorsport Wednesday we were joined by the majority of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo drivers (above) as they prepared for their forthcoming race weekend.

The next event takes place at the Dubai Autodrome, on the full Grand Prix circuit, on Wednesday the 1st March and then the final event will be in the evening at Yas Marina on March 8th. At both events Dragon Racing will have available to hire;

UAE F4 Tatuus Single Seaters
Ferrari 458 Challenge+'s
McLaren GT Sprints
'DR Edition' Toyota GT86
Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport

Please click the button beneath to inquire further