Historic double for Cian Carey

Ratoath man Cian Carey achieved a piece of motorsport history at the weekend when he became the first driver to retain the British Formula 3 Cup Championship in the final round of the series at Snetterton on Saturday and Sunday.

The Meath man made it back-to-back successes after his initial victory in last year's competitive series and this time around achieved eight wins and 16 podium finishes in total.

"Overall, I’m absolutely delighted to take the championship, back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2018 with eight wins this season, it has been unbelievable," commented Carey.

"The team (Chris Dittman Racing) did an amazing job, I can’t thank Chris and the lads enough, Shane and Neil have been brilliant on the car, it has always been perfect every time I get into it," he added.

The Meath man reflected on the success he has enjoyed over the last three years as he prepared to celebrate the historic double in the competitive F3 championship.

"The success in these past three years is something special," he said.

"Irish young race driver of the year, Lenister Trophy champion and now two British titles back-to-back is something I could never have dreamed of and none of it would have been possible without the support of my sponsors and family.

“The support from F Brazil Reinforcements, Mooretown Engineering and Dunboyne Powder Coating was tremendous, also, for my parents for giving me this amazing opportunity to fulfil my dream.

"We’ve had massive support this year none more than my lovely fiancée Ursula and I want to thank everyone for the kind messages before and after each race.

"As for 2020, we will sit down and make plans for that later," he added.

The weekend action wasn't all plain sailing for Carey as the weekend started with a damp track in qualifying which left conditions tricky for the drivers and teams to make the decision on what tyres to choose.

Carey opted for slicks on a drying track, but ultimately it wasn’t the right decision and Carey qualified fifth for race one and sixth for race two.

Starting from fifth as the red lights went out Carey fell to the back of the grid and with title rival Shane Kelly leading the race he had it all to do.

Picking off the opposition he got back to fourth and chasing down the final place on the podium setting fastest laps of the race.

Kelly had lost the lead and was in third just ahead and the two championship rivals were going head to head. With two laps to go Carey  made it through.

After race one Carey reported clutch issues off the line and the Chris Dittmann racing team went to workand found a bearing problem which they fixed.

With the championship on his mind he was closing the gap on Dunshaughlin man Darragh Daly who was in second place in race two, but he didn’t want to take any chances knowing he was ahead of Kelly who was running in seventh.

For the third and final race of the season Carey had all but won the championship and lined up in third position for the start.

Another great start saw him pushed onto the grass into turn one, but he held onto his position and made an excellent move around the outside of Daly at turn two and  moved up into second position.

Unfortunately, the safety car came out four laps from the end resulting in the race finishing under yellow flags and Carey took a strong second place on the podium meaning he was crowned the 2019 British Formula 3 Cup champion for the second year in-a-row.