Quinn had earned pole position for the final race of the weekend, after he set the fastest time in the Saturday timed qualifying session – where the second quickest time from each driver dictates the starting grid for race three.
Ayrton Simmons qualified his TRS Arden Junior Team machine 5th on the grid, just ahead of British F4 Vice-Champion elect Oscar Piastri. Olli Caldwell set the second-best time of the Ford F4 Challenge Cup runners with 10th on the grid.
Quinn made a great start to hold his position from the challenging Linus Lundqvist throughout the opening corners – building a small gap on the exit of Graham Hill bend. Simmons vaulted himself up to 4th place, displacing champion elect Jamie Caroline through turn one. Piastri had maintained position, just behind his championship rival in 6th.
Caldwell just sneaked through to 9th before the safety car was deployed from a start line shunt.
The safety car pulled in after two laps, in which Quinn made a solid restart to control action from the front, as Lundqvist had to deal with the attentions of Logan Sargeant behind him. Simmons managed to pull off a bold move on Sargeant to move himself into 3rd position – moving two TRS Arden machines into the podium places.
Piastri was all over the rear of Caroline, who was driving and defending erratically – bunching the field up behind him at Paddock Hill bend and into Druids. This caused a large bunch up of cars behind him – eventually releasing Hampus Ericsson past Piastri and Caroline in one fell swoop.
Caldwell was fighting off the attentions of Karl Massaad as he strengthened his grip on his solid 9th position.
Later in the race as precarious looking clouds formed overhead, Quinn had managed to pull out a two second advantage over his rivals as he marched ahead setting personal best laps on a consistent basis.
Simmons however took too much exit kerb on the exit on the penultimate corner, spinning himself out of contention for a podium finish – as damage forced him into the pits to retire. Sargeant inherited third, but suffered a similar fate just a lap later – promoting Ericsson into 3rd, as Piastri remained challenging Caroline.
As the race reached the climax, Caroline again remained erratic allowing Patrik Pasma to sneak past Piastri after blocking the YRDA Aussie into Druids corner. The race finished with Quinn completing a dominant lights-to- flag victory, taking his fourth win at the final race of the British F4 season. Piastri crossed the line in 5th, stealing the position from Caroline on the line. Caldwell crossed the line in 9th position – which gave him 2nd place in the Ford F4 Challenge Cup classification as well.
Alex Quinn “Win number four the season feels so good! The second half of the race was really enjoyable when I was pulling away out front from Lundqvist. Once my tyres wereup to temperature I got into a good groove and was able to pull away. This was a really important race for me because I wanted to end the season on a high. After the disappointment of yesterday, other than qualifying on pole for this race, it’s great to bounce back like this. “
TRS Arden drivers finished the 2017 British F4 Championship with the three drivers who completed the entire season inside the top 7 in the overall standings.
Piastri took 2nd position overall, Quinn took 4th overall and Simmons placed 7th in the final classification.
Caldwell just missed out on 3rd place in the Ford F4 Challenge Cup standings, just two and a half points off his rivals, despite doing one race less than the drivers he was racing.
TRS Arden finished the season as Vice-Champions in the Team’s Championship as well as a result of the hard work by all their drivers.
Attention now turns to the 2018 season, as the team builds to do one better in both the Driver’s and Team’s Championship. Stay tuned for upcoming driver announcements in preparation for next year!