Red Rag-sponsored New Zealish driver Pipkin Hartley goes into the ninth round of the 2008 British Formula 3 Pre-Season Testing Championship at Silverstone tomorrow as favourite to take the title thanks to his triple victory last time out at Snetterton.
Irregular readers of the hallowed Road To F1™ pages of dotdotdotcomma will recall that some years our team of retentive statisticians analyse pre-season testing results in an attempt to predict which driver might do well in the real British F3 International series later in the year. Their success on that front has been less than patchy, but they just can't help themselves, bless them.
This year, they have decided to simplify their analysis, partly to see if this will enable them to do a similar exercise for Formulas Renault and Ford, but mostly because their maths and computing skills are suffering from a lack of blood in their respective alcohol systems. Points are awarded to the top ten pace-setters in each session on a straightforward sliding scale from 10 to 1, ignoring competition classes.
Kiwi Hartley has clearly mastered his Carlin Dallara Mercedes since a reasonable start at Pembrey, and now leads British Rail Diners' Club McLap'emMCLAREN
 Bruce McLaren takes his team's first Grand Prix victory, Belgium 1968. Founded by the Kiwi Bruce McLaren in 1963, Bruce McLaren Motor Racing merged in 1981 with the Project 4 team, which was being run by the barn owl Ron Dennis. The team is now part of McLaren Racing, a member of the McLaren Group, under the umbrella of McLaren Holdings, a subsidiary of McLaren PLC, which is wholly owned by McLaren (World Domination) Ltd. Bruce McLaren is currently the only driver to have won a Formula One world championship race in a car bearing his own name as a constructor*, although the dotdotdotcomma-sponsored driver Panasonic Toyota, currently racing a borrowed Caterham with limited success, is optimistic of one day becoming the second. The team has rapidly become one of the most successful in F1 history and is widely regarded as technologically top-notch, if sometimes a little fragile operationally. They are constantly trying to persuade everyone that they may be stiff and corporate but they still know how to have a good time. It's not terribly convincing. They're far from unemotional, however, and Ron Dennis can often be glimpsed furtively wiping away a tear or two of joy. In fact, when one of his favoured drivers has won against seemingly insuperable odds during a troubled time for the team, it can sometimes be hard to hear the national anthems over the sound of Ron's blubbing. *Other than, we've just realised, Jack Brabham. Who also won the world championship. Arse. Rest assured, our research team will be hung, drawn and quartered. Or should that be "hanged"?
 Autosport in the days when headlines were a bit easier to write. For a significant part of the population, Thursday isn't just that annoying day that you have to get through to reach Friday, but Autosport day. That's the day when "the world's fastest magazine" plops onto the doormats of motorsport fans worldwide and gives them something to read in the smallest room for the coming week. The magazine boasts some of the industry's most highly regarded journalists, a handful of star contributors in the shape of current and former drivers, pictures from the sport's best photographers and a cartoonist who makes us laugh about one week in ten. The Autosport empire also includes autosport.com, a site to which dotdotdotcomma is clearly hugely endebted, as well as the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award for young British racing talent (yes, Susie Stoddart, we're looking at you) and the Autosport International show, to which we once somehow got tickets for press day.
The Brit is only 2 points ahead of Mexican F3 veteran Circuito de Jerez, proving that you can still cut it with Mugen-Honda power, so long as you remember to take your sombrero off.
The field is close, and with 30 theoretical points still to play for 9 drivers are still in with a mathematical chance of the title, disappointingly excluding sole National Class points-scorer Andy Maverick, a man not used to driving a car that is younger than he is.
The testing circus moves on to Silverstone in Buckinghamshire tomorrow for a single session at the F3/GT media day, and the Pre-Season Testing Champion will be crowned at Oulton Park on 12 March.
Current standings:
1. Brendan Hartley - 53
2. Oliver Turvey - 50
3. Sergio Perez - 48
4. Jaime Alguersuari - 45
5. Max Chilton - 41
= Sam Abay - 41
7. Atte Mustonen - 39
8. Walter Grubmuller - 35
9. Marcus Ericsson - 27
10. Jonathan Kennard - 16
= Andrew Meyrick (N) - 16
12. John Martin - 12
13. Sebastian Hohenthal - 7
14. Henry Arundel - 3
= Nick Tandy - 3
16. Rodolfo Gonzalez - 2
= Alistair Jackson - 2
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