On 13 November 1982, Ayrton Senna walked for the first time in a Formula 3 car in the UK.
The race at Thruxton was not worth the championship that year, because it was already closed, but it was the big test for the Brazilian driver, who knew that would make the regular season of British F-3 the following year.
The team was the West Surrey, the car was the model Racing Ralt RT3 / 82. Ayrton would have a large media exposure that weekend, mainly by the presence of the BBC TV cameras, one of the world’s communication channels.
Ayrton face several drivers who competed in the season that year, as Tommy Byrne, 1982 champion Another pilot also wanted to take the opportunity to show service: the Argentine Enrique “Quique” Mansilla, Senna mate that year in Formula Ford, where Senna had won the title of the category.
But for Dick Bennetts, team leader West Surrey, Senna was who certainly stole the spotlight. After all, he himself, being an experienced team owner, had never seen a pilot run as fast. “He (Ayrton) wins any one.”
In fact, the Brazilian has started the challenge ahead: Senna took pole in 1 min 13s 34, four tenths faster than the pole of Martin Brundle, made three weeks ago in the British Formula 3 championship. No one but Senna improved the time below 1min14 that qualifying.
Senna opened significant advantage with every lap and won with an impressive margin for the second place, Bengt Trägårdh: 13 seconds.
With the show that gave the Brazilian, Dick Bennetts and Ayrton Senna shook hands and closed the pilot’s going to play the entire season of F3 English in 1983, thus beginning the last step before his debut in F1
source: Ayrton Senna Official