Lolas get ready for the Masters.

A pair of the new Lola B05/30 Formula Three cars will be racing this weekend in the prestigious Marlboro Masters International Formula Three event at Zandvoort in Holland as the official Marlboro backed team.

Powered by Neil Brown prepared Mugen-Honda engines, the JB Motorsport entered cars will be the last ever to feature Marlboro identification before the Netherlands tobacco treaty is enforced. Lola regular Steven Kane and local driver Ferdinand Kool will head the Lola attack and both are looking to race and beat the cream of Europe's F3 talent. This includes current Euroseries leader Lewis Hamilton and Williams F1 test driver Nico Rosberg.

After a shakedown test conducted at Oulton Park last Friday, both Kane and Kool are keen to show what they can achieve on the International stage.

"It will be a good experience for me because in a sense we are up against it, as I have never been there before and the Euroseries drivers and most of the British runners have," said Kane. "Having said that I am reasonably confident as I had to learn tracks in a very short space of time in Spain last season. We also had a really positive test at Oulton last Friday when I was evaluating the Kumho rubber. All in all I think that these tyres have a slightly softer sidewall that will give grip in different areas. I am sure that if we hit the ground running then there is no reason why we should not be at the sharp-end this weekend."

Kane is managed by Damon Hill, who himself won at Zandvoort in an Intersport entered Ralt RT31 in 1987, and will be giving advice on the run up to the weekend. Steven has also consulted his Playstation games consol in order to familiarise himself with famous corners, such as Tarzan, Bos Uit and Gerlachbocht.

For Ferdinand Kool, learning the track will not be a problem, as he has raced at the circuit throughout his career and lives in nearby Oud-Beijerland. However, what he can tell his team-mate about the track, he will be able to trade for information about the car when they work together at the weekend. But the test at Oulton gave the Dutchman added confidence for the coming weekend.

"It was quite positive but I would have loved to have more time," said the 24 year old. "But what I did learn was that the car feels very good in the fast corners and just as good as my usual Dallara in the slow speed turns. The engine felt great too and I think that JB and myself can drive a very strong race this weekend."

While Kool will work with his engineers from the German based Recaro F3 series, Kane will be with his usual Promatecme engineering squad this weekend, overseen by experienced team boss Chris Weller. Both drivers will also benefit from the expert eye of Lola's F3 project manager Adam Airey, who believes that while the different tyres and lack of circuit knowledge is a disadvantage, particularly for Kane, he also believes that the Lola could also score a good result.

"It will be an interesting weekend and we will work hard to neutralise the disadvantages that we naturally have with the lack of circuit knowledge and the tyres. The test at Oulton was useful and we know already that Steven is certainly a real fighter in the races. That, allied to Ferdinand's experience of the track, means that we could feature strongly this weekend."