Pembrey - 12th/13th May 2007 - Rounds 2 & 3

Mark Terry experienced some of the worst conditions for driving, but nonetheless chalked up a couple of fourth places to go third in the Enterprise Formula 3 Championships last weekend.

At one stage he was holding the steering wheel with his left hand while trying to manually mop up and prevent rainwater from completely blinding him with his right ~ while travelling at over 130 mph.

"It was horrendous out there," he said. "A really tough weekend, but it wasn't a bad set of results.

"You have to remember the championship leader, Keith Baldwin, has been driving F3 for years. It was my third time in the car."

The meeting was at Pembrey, South Wales, and the weather for Friday's practice offered a hint of what was to come. It rained, but Terry had the right tyres on and was quickest. At that stage he was confident for the weekend.

He had new tyres for the qualifying race and was third fastest when two cars went off and the rest were red flagged. When the race was restarted the 45 year old, from Walderslade, dropped back to sixth although only one second separated them all.

He had a problem with vision in the first race - "it was like driving on the M25 without wipers," - he said - but went from sixth up to third before a terrific scrap with a Greek driver ended with the latter nicking fourth by half-a-car's length.

Thee second race was even worse as far as the rain was concerned.

It was so bad that organisers shortened it to 20 minutes and made the cars travel for two laps behind a pacecar so they could see where the water was at its worst on the surface.

There was a rolling start, too, but while Terry is used to those - a legacy of his kart driving days, that - the man in front wasn't and it was all rather slower than anticipated.

Still, he eventually went past the slow-coach and spent the rest of the race trying to chase down the man in fourth spot. He never made it, but was pleased to cut a 12-second gap to around one-and-a-half by the end.

"Considering I really couldn't see for a lot of the time I was happy enough," he said.

He is now two points behind second-placed John Gray and five behind Baldwin.