St. Catharines racer heads to Italy for F3 test

Norris McDonald

MOTORSPORT WRITER

Gianmarco Raimondo of St. Catharines will fly to Italy on Thursday for a test in that country's Formula 3 national championship after finishing third in Sunday's second of two Formula BMW-Americas race of the weekend at Mosport International Raceway.

The 30-minute timed event was won by Gianmarco Vilarinho of Brazil, with Gabby Chaves of Colombia second, giving him the 2009 championship – a series that is finished now that BMW has pulled the plug.

Alex Ellis, also of St. Catharines, finished ninth in the race and wound up third in the chase for the rookie championship.

Ellis, 17, was giving it all he had and mixing it up with the leaders when he started to spin near the end of the race and by the time he regained control of his car, he was out of contention.

It was an excellent weekend for Raimondo, 18. He won the pole for Saturday's race, which he won. His third-place finish Sunday was – as he said afterward – about the best he could do.

"I had a good start to hold my position but after the race settled down I couldn't move up," said the teenager, who now plans to pursue his racing dreams in Europe.

"But I had a pole, a victory and a podium today (Sunday) so I'm very satisfied."

Chaves, as he did Saturday when he tried to get past Raimondo near the end of the race, gave it the old college try again Sunday morning.

Going into Turn Ten (the last corner before the start/finish straight), he tried to cut inside Vilarinho for the lead but the young Brazilian "closed the door" on his fellow South American and Chavez had to back off to avoid a collision.

"Gianmarco defended his position well," said Chavez. "I nearly went into the pits (the pit entrance is just before Turn Ten), but I was able to get straightened out and finish second and I'm happy about that."

Vilarinho shows no emotion whatsoever and looked as unhappy on the podium Sunday as he did when he finished third Saturday. He also doesn't project his speaking voice well and Mosport announcer Jim Martyn said later that the youngster's victory speech could be summed up thusly:

"He said he was glad he won the race and it had been a good season," said Martyn.

This was the final race in the Formula BMW-Americas championship. When BMW announced it would leave Formula One at the end of this season, it also announced the end of this particular series.

Which is too bad for Canada. Potential F1 driver Robert Wickens of Toronto – who is now turning heads in European Formula 2 – got a big career boost by winning this championship three years ago, as did Daniel Morad of Markham who won the title two years ago.

This leaves Formula Atlantic, Star Mazda and Indy Lights as the major open-wheel development series remaining in North America.

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