This weekend at Rockingham will see Olli Caldwell compete in his fourth weekend of the British F4 Championship as he continues his Challenge Cup title assault despite being one round down on points. Olli is now 4th in the standings heading into Rockingham on 143 points and is up to 14th in the overall championship.
Knockhill was a landmark weekend for Olli’s Arden Motorsport team which included three Challenge Cup podiums in mixed conditions. On a track that was hard to overtake on Olli did a good job to recover from a qualifying session which didn’t quite go to plan. Race three was particularly impressive as Olli fell just short of an overall Challenge Cup victory after an impressive comeback.
Rockingham should be a different story though, when it comes to difficulty in overtaking. The circuit is 1.94 miles in length and is over 18 metres wide in some places giving plenty of space for racing. The long straights allow the British F4 cars to get a good tow and close in on the drivers ahead, often leading to overtakes in to turn two among other corners. History suggests that there will be plenty of battles on track which should keep the field congested and opportunities for very good results
could present themselves. Two of the three races at last years meeting saw the top three drivers covered by just one second at the flag!
Last week there was a pre-event test for the British F4 teams with 14 drivers taking the chance to tackle the Rockingham circuit ahead of the race this weekend. Olli
had a very productive day completing a total of 114 laps. Olli’s quickest time was a 1:19.643 which put him 9th overall and made him the fastest Challenge Cup driver. Olli was just 0.02 seconds away from 8th place and was one second off the fastest time of the day. It was a positive test to take into the race weekend with the conditions very much reflecting the dry weather that is predicted for this weekend.
This will be Olli’s very first time tacking the Rockingham circuit in a racing situation. Last year he missed the Ginetta Junior race as he was abroad racing in the
Rotax Max Euro Challenge. It’s something Olli is not concerned about and he is in fact relishing the challenge! A good crowd always tends to pile into the huge grandstands at Rockingham with in excess of 30,000 spectators expected over the weekend.
The aim for this weekend will certainly be more wins and podiums in the Challenge Cup class and Olli will no doubt be looking for some top ten finishes to put some more
points on the board in the overall championship.
Olli Caldwell: "I'm really looking forward to racing at Rockingham this weekend! It will be my first time racing there, but I'm feeling confident after last week's test. I'm aiming to pick up some wins and podiums in the Challenge Cup class and keep improving in the overall standings too."
You can follow the action this weekend at ollicaldwell.com/live and watch live TV coverage on Sunday on ITV4