GB4 Championship runner-up Isaac Phelps was immediately on the pace as he made his GB3 debut with Elite Motorsport.
After narrowly missing out on the GB4 title a couple of weeks ago, the British youngster didn't have to wait long for his next race appearance, after being called up by the team to fill the seat of the unwell Will Macintyre.
After just a single day of testing at Donington Park before his debut event, Phelps built up his speed in testing on the Thursday, setting the 20th quickest time as he acclimatised to both the car and the circuit.
He went four tenths quicker in the first practice session on Friday as he set the 17th quickest time, before seriously impressing in the second and final practice on Friday afternoon, going 11th fastest but within half a second of the outright pace of dominant champion Alex Ninovic.
He then qualified 16th for his GB3 debut in the first qualifying session, but showed his real potential in the second, quicker session for the race two grid, setting a time just 0.637s away from pole sitter Ninovic, and less than a tenth of a second away from a place in the top-eight.
While he was wiped out of the first race after a multi car collision at the first chicane, he bounced back in style with 11th place in race two, which proved to be his best result of the event, while also finishing 16th in the season finale.
“I was quite happy [with qualifying], it was a good showing and another few hundredths of a second would have put me P9 or P8, which is really good considering I’d done one day in the car.” said Phelps.
“I was really happy to get that qualifying done and get a clean lap in, but also a bit annoyed a bit because I was four thousandths from reverse pole [for race three]!
“I was not really expecting it [this performance]. Having to learn the track as well, it’s been a completely different experience to anything I’ve ever done. The low downforce set-up made it feel like driving a totally different car to the one I tested at Donington. But I made improvements every time I’ve been in the car and that’s really been good.”
