First pole then historic win for Watts and Lola.

Danny Watts, driving a Promatecme Lola-Dome re-wrote the Formula 3 record books on Sunday as he took the Anglo/Japanese chassis to a first ever victory in the Avon Tyres British Formula Three Championship at Castle Combe.

It was a dominant performance to take the laurels in the 11th round of the Championship acknowledged as one of the world's most competitive single seater series.

After taking the Lola-Dome's first British pole position on Saturday afternoon, 24 year old Watts finished off the job by leading each of the 20 laps in his Neil Brown prepared Mugen -Honda engined car, to become the first non-Dallara driver to win in the British Championship since 1993, ending the Italian constructors stranglehold of 11 years.

Finishing 2.4 seconds ahead of second placed Clivio Piccione, Danny drove an immaculate race in the BRDC backed Lola-Dome F106 which rocked the Formula Three world with a convincing and highly popular first victory. Danny followed that up by finishing a close 3rd in the 12th round later in the afternoon, a race which was conducted in wet conditions.

"This is a testament to the hard work that Lola and Promatecme have put in to developing this car," said a jubilant Watts on the podium after claiming the historic win. "I got a great start (in race one) and then just got in to a great rhythm and conducted the pace. The car was just fantastic everywhere and there was no way we were going to be beaten in that race. There was no real pressure from the Dallaras today and that was a nice feeling."

Watts, who is competing on a race by race basis due to a lack of funds, shrugged aside those concerns to show that he and the Lola-Dome have climbed to the top of the Formula 3 pile despite not always been able to test as much as the Dallara entrants this season. "It's great to show what I can do with the car and hopefully this will attract some partners to help us push for more wins and also a top Championship position," said Watts, who leapt to 7th place in the Championship after the Castle Combe results, with a total of 60 points, despite having competed in 3 rounds less than his competitors.

After first racing the car at the beginning of last year's championship, Lola and Dome have seen it win in Japan and Italy. The British Championship victory signifies a grand slam of successes for the chassis, something which Lola Cars International Chairman, Martin Birrane is proud of. "Formula Three is an ultra competitive discipline and it is a great tribute to Danny Watts and Chris Weller's team who have succeeded in winning despite meager financial resources in arguably one of the toughest series there is," he said. "It is an important win in Lola's history as it now means that we have a victory in every acknowledged major single seater series, which in itself stands as a testimony to all the Lola engineers who have worked so hard on this Formula Three project."

Also highly delighted with the win was Promatecme team boss Chris Weller who has been instrumental in the success of the car this season. " It was a very good job well done by Danny and the team this weekend," he said. "We knew that the car would be quick around here and Danny, of course, has won here before so it all came together very nicely indeed."

Lola's Formula 3 engineer, Adam Airey, was over the moon with the win and said; "It was a great all-round performance from everyone, especially Danny who was a star all weekend. Days like these are a fantastic reward for all the efforts that have gone in to the programme. Particular praise should go to Chris Weller and the Promatecme team and of course all at Lola Cars International."

Race 2 saw Danny start second on the grid after just missing out on another pole position to Adam Carroll. Indeed, the gap of just 0.014s amounted to just over half a metres difference on the 1.85mile Wiltshire track.

After dropping to 4th at the beginning of the wet race, Danny was soon up to 3rd and making an impression on the leaders until the Safety Car was deployed to retrieve Ernesto Viso's crashed Dallara. With a 2 lap sprint to the flag, Danny got to within 2 seconds of winner Alvaro Parente at the chequered flag and was on the tail of second placed Adam Carroll.

" It was a difficult start as we were on brand new wet tyres and the grip just wasn't there in the slippery conditions," said Danny afterwards. "I was taking different lines in to the corners to find more grip and was staying with Parente and Carroll at the front. It was another good result for the team and it was nice to know that the car is just as quick in the wet. After the earlier win it was nice to be on the podium once again and come away with a nice clutch of points (32in total)."