Joey loses the title lead
20.06.2006 by Harry Hogge
Joey had a frustrating few days at the office at the Nurburgring over the weekend, coming away from the double header with a 2nd and 8th place finishes in his HS Technik Lola B06/30-Spiess.
Race one saw the 'Truro-Terrier' hound fellow Lola racer Ho-Pin Tung all the way to the flag, finishing just under two seconds from the Dutch/Chinese drivers rear wing.
Race two saw Pin Tung make another excellent start to lead but behind Joey was planning to dent him a double. Sadly, as Joey was on the verge of breaking in to the top 3 after a difficult qualifying session, he was rudely assaulted by Recardo Bruins Van Amersfort Dallara.
"There was a bit of a bottleneck going in to the tight turn two and he just hit me up the back," said a distraught Foster after the race. "He apologised afterwards and said that he in turn was hit but it was little consolation for me."
In true fighting style, Foster then began an extraordinary recovery drive and fought back from 23rd position to 8th, claiming valuable points for his title assault.
"It is disappointing to lose the title lead but I am confident we can re-claim it at the next race. It is a very competitive season here, probably the closest ever so it is good to fight with the JB Motorsport guys as they have more experience than me in F3 and also of the circuits."
Joey's weekend didn't end there however as he took time out to explore the wild frontier that is the Nurburgring 24 Hours which was held on the iconic and notorious 14 mile Nordschliefe circuit.
With such legends as Nuvolari, Rosemeyer, Fangio and Stewart having scored some of their most triumphs on the circuit, Joey marvelled at the vast array of entrants in one of the craziest 24 hour races on earth which still features racing greats like Hans Stuck and Klaus Ludwig.
"It was fairly chaotic out in the forests," he confirmed. "There were raves and parties going on all over the place. We also saw a German fire truck being used as a beer pump which was quite novel!"
The German Recaro F3 series reconvenes at Assen in Holland on 15/16 July with Joey determined to re-take the series points lead.
RACE ONE RESULTS
| 1 | Ho-Pin Tung (PRC/NL) | JB Motorsport Lola-Spiess | 25m07.203s |
| 2 | Joey Foster (GB) | HS Technik Lola-Spiess | 25m09.023s |
| 3 | Ferdinand Kool (NL) | JB Motorsport Lola-Spiess | 25m10.461s |
| 4 | Harald Schlegelmilch (LAT) | HS Technik Dallara-Spiess | 25m22.367s |
| 5 | Nicolas Hulkenburg (D) | JK Racing Ligier-Spiess | 25m26.420s |
| 6 | Marcello Thomaz (BRA) | Swiss Racing Dallara | 25m27.571s |
| 7 | Renger Van Der Zande (NL) | Seyffarth Dallara Mercedes | 25m28.393s |
| 8 | Natacha Gachnang (CH) | Bordoli Dallara-Spiess | 25m28.677s |
| 9 | Cyndie Alleman (CH) | SMS Seyffarth Dallara Mercedes | 25m35.606s |
| 10 | Johannes Theobald (D) | Seyffarth Dallara-Mercedes | 25m39.492s |
Fastest Lap: Ho-Pin Tung (PRC/NL) JB Motorsport Lola-Spiess 1m39.333s
RACE TWO RESULTS
| 1 | Ho-Pin Tung (PRC/NL) | JB Motorsport Lola-Spiess | 25m13.358s |
| 2 | Marcello Thomaz (BRA) | Swiss Racing Dallara | 25m26.009s |
| 3 | Natacha Gachnang (CH) | Bordoli Dallara-Spiess | 25m26.478s |
| 4 | Recardo Bruins (KOR) | Van Amersfort Dallara Spiess | 25m28.674s |
| 5 | Ferdinand Kool (NL) | JB Motorsport Lola-Spiess | 25m30.338s |
| 6 | Salvatore Gatto (I) | Target Racing SLC-Spiess | 25m35.979s |
| 7 | Cyndie Alleman (CH) | SMS Seyffarth Dallara Mercedes | 25m37.958s |
| 8 | Joey Foster (GB) | HS Technik Lola-Spiess | 25m41.253s |
| 9 | Harald Schlegelmilch (LAT) | HS Technik Dallara-Spiess | 25m43.441s |
| 10 | Dominick Muermans (NL) | Van Amersfort Dallara-Spiess | 25m48.463s |
Fastest Lap: Ho-Pin Tung (PRC/NL) JB Motorsport Lola-Spiess 1m39.707s
CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS AFTER 5 ROUNDS
| 1 | Ho Pin Tung (PRC/NL) | 77pts |
| 2 | Joey Foster (GB) | 68pts |
| 3 | Ferdinand Kool (NL) | 52pts |
| 4 | Nicolas Hulkenburg (D) | 44pts |
| 5 | Ricardo Van Der Zande (NL) | 32pts |