Billericay racer Matt Davies was forced to retire from his Formula 3 foray at Croft after making good progress.

Matt qualified 14th but made his way up to eighth at the two-mile circuit before an engine misfire halted his progress on the 17th lap.

"I was having a really great race," said Matt. "I took some big risks in the early laps but they paid off. I'm pleased with the way I drove."

Matt's Renault Elf Promatecme team-mate Andy Priaulx finished ninth after holding sixth spot at one point. He started from tenth.

The pair had a disappointing qualifying session which saw them well down the grid at the Darlington circuit.

But it had looked as if long hours spent checking over the car's on-board data-logging equipment had paid dividends as the team sought to improve performance.

Both ran well in the early part of the 24-lap race at the north-east track which is one of the most difficult in the country for overtaking.

The race was won by championship leader Antonio Pizzonla. The F3 racers will be in action next at Oulton Park at the end of the month.

Worn tyres wreck racer's high hopes

Worn tyres condemned Rayleigh racing driver Paul Hughes to a disappointing afternoon at Croft in thealphaclub.com MGFCup.

Paul qualified on the seventh row of the grid at the North Yorkshire circuit but slipped to the back of the pack once the race started.

With no fresh rubber on his wheels, Paul struggled to keep up with the race leaders and found himself four seconds off the pace throughout.

"It was a terrible race," admitted Paul, who had never raced at Croft before, unlike the rest of the MGF Cup pack.

"I had never raced on slick tyres before joining the MGF Cup championship and didn't know they wore out so quickly.

"We haven't changed tyres since we first bought the car, so my performance was nothing special."

Paul admitted he had been hoping to reward his mechanics with a top ten finish after they worked really hard on setting the 1.8-litre MGF up over the weekend.

But he added:"One thing is for sure, there will be a brand new set of tyres on the car at Oulton Park for the next race."

Some of the top teams in the MGFCup have sufficient funds to change their tyres for every race.

But other teams are forced to make them last which affects the car's performance.

The next round is on April 30 and May 1 at the Cheshire circuit.

Smoke gets in your eyes - Paul Hughes burns rubber as he locks his wheels entering a tight right-hander at Croft

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.