Jonathan Macri took flight to the UK last week. No, he was not trying to escape the bustle and panic that usually precedes Christmas. No, Jonathan’s flight to the UK was strictly business - racing business, that is. Gormley, Ontario’s open-wheels dynamo took to the Pembrey track to test for British F3’s Team Avanti. Only his first experience in a F3 car and first outing at Pembrey, still, Jonathan left no doubt in the collective minds of Team Avanti and other F3 teams and aficionados as to his natural talent, maturity, and outright speed, posting a lap time of 50.4 seconds, a miniscule 0.3 seconds off the quickest time. As if this statistic in itself was not enough to impress, Jonathan accomplished this time testing against the 2001 Championship team Carlin Motorsport, whose driver, it should be duly noted, ran the quickest time on new tires, as opposed to Jonathan, who raced on his old tires. You do the math. New tires would have eliminated the standard .5-second advantage experienced by the Carlin drivers and you would have had Jonathan ahead by .2 seconds. Impressive! Add to this the fact that Jonathan tested for only one day as opposed to Carlin, which had already put in an additional full day of testing, and Jonathan’s performance seems that much more phenomenal.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Jonathan said. “The experience was totally new for me. I have never raced at Pembrey and have never been inside the cockpit of a F3 car, so I started the morning test sessions slowly, trying to figure out the characteristics of the car and track. As compared to the Toyota Atlantic car, the F3 car requires more precision. The smaller tires make the car less forgiving. A little hard on the throttle and you’ll spin. Definitely a much more sensitive car to drive, but an extremely stable car at high speeds. By early afternoon, I was running with a lot more confidence and this was reflected in my lap times. Nearing the end of the test day, I became extremely comfortable with the car and track. I put in some really competitive lap times and was just fractions of a second off the times set by the Carlin driver.
In fact, track data confirmed Jonathan’s excellent performance. Previous times set by Matt Davies at Pembrey, a multi-race winner for Team Avanti in 2001, showed that Jonathan actually outperformed Matt in a number of corners on the track.
Jonathan’s performance did not escape the ever-mindful eyes of Team Avanti owner Nigel Clyde, who showed real enthusiasm and was unabashedly impressed with Jonathan, both on and off the track.
“Jonathan had a very good attitude towards his driving, using his intelligence to better himself and his speed,” Nigel Clyde said. “I found Jonathan to be very easy and rewarding to work with, a mature head on young shoulders together with good natural ability. I was surprised how well Jonathan did throughout the day. 50.4 is a good time around Pembrey, especially under the circumstances. We also have to take into consideration that this laptime was done on what I would consider to be old tyres (65km). If we had fitted another new set I would expect him to have gone much faster which would have been very impressive indeed…I have no doubt that Jonathan could be a very serious runner in the British F3 Championship!”
After having captured the 2000 Canadian Ford Championship, having proven himself in the Toyota Atlantic Series, capturing 5th place in the 2001 Championship, and having posted phenomenal test times in only his first British F3 experience, one constant remains. Whether running open-wheels in North America or in Europe, Jonathan Macri has a real wealth of race talent. Undoubtedly, success will be his in 2002.
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