WITH A car that does not yet have the full compliment of on board telemetry sensors or data acquisition tools Scud Racing has topped their first official session in this years Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship, at Mallala last weekend.

The last-minute purchase of the ex-Manor Motorsport Dallara F307-Mercedes Benz chassis prior to the first round left the team playing catch up since the A1GP meeting in February, Scud Racing continually receiving new parts and information – as well as undertaking its own development – as it learns the car.

The results seem to be paying off as Scud Racing driver Stuart Kostera topped second practice at Mallala before posting the most convincing performances of the season to date in the subsequent qualifying and race sessions.

Kostera qualified fifth in wet conditions in qualifying one before lapping less than a second from the pace in the second session to line up 6th for race two.

The team found a gain of 0.2 seconds between rounds three and four of the championship, based on the results from qualifying at each round.

In race one Kostera had the pace to challenge with the leaders and was chasing down fourth-placed Nick Percat until the pair got close at turn five half-way into the race.

Kostera was forced into a spin and was unable to refire the car to complete the race distance.

In race two he ran fifth for most of the race before both Winslow and Reindler were able to slip by – after a race long dice – after an off track moment with three laps to go, leaving him with a solid points haul and seventh overall.

Though frustrating, the weekend has left team owner Bill Maddocks excited about the prospects the second half of the year holds for his team.

”I’m more than happy. Stuart was naturally quite disappointed with what happened and you can understand that – but I’m just over the moon with the job that he is doing and the way he’s doing it,” Maddocks said.

”We topped our first session of the year in practice two. Sure it was wet, but the fact that we were fastest shows that we were doing something right with the car.

”I felt that Stuart could have had a podium in race one because he was driving brilliantly.

”Unfortunately he had the problem with another car and that ended his race, but up to that point he was staying with some quick cars and was more than capable of getting onto the podium.

”I don’t think we are far away from the first podium this season,” Maddocks added. “The team is still chasing what we need to get some data out of the car and that will be worth some time to us. Given we are a year ahead of where we planned to be, I’m very pleased.

”I’m convinced that we will be regular podium material by the end of the year.” He said.

”We started the year between 1- 2 seconds off in qualifying, and now we’re between half to nine-tenths off the pace so we have improved,” Driver Stuart Kostera said.

”Mallala wasn’t a highly successful weekend for us but it proved that we are making some more progress, slowly.

”Race one was unfortunate when I was left with no where to go by another competitor, and forced off the track. In race two I made a simple mistake and hit the throttle instead of the brake exiting turn two which caused me to understeer off and loose some positions.

”The positive thing is that we are getting closer to the front each time we run,” he said.

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