8/26/2007

Stoneman Extends Championship Lead As Rossi Wins

Worswick Engineering’s Rossi (Blackburn) took his second victory of the season in round nine of the 2007 Formula Renault BARC Championship on Sunday, 26th August. Alpine Motorsport’s Dean Stoneman (Southampton) finished second at Brands Hatch Indy circuit to open an 18-point lead at the top of the drivers’ standings. Quantexe Racing’s Felix Fisher (Bridgwater) made a welcome return to the podium in third place.

In Club Class, for pre-2000 Formula Renault cars, Ian Pearson retained his title with his eighth win of the season. He now leads the Club Class standings by 61 points with just 51 available in the final three races. Reon Motorsport duo Roberto Tirone (Amberley) and Iain Morton (London) completed the podium.

The drama in FR2000 Class started on the green flag lap when pole-sitter Hywel Lloyd (Corwen) lost control as he warmed his tyres, hitting the crash barrier at Druids hairpin. He recovered to the pit lane, but left the way clear for Double M Racing’s Aaron Steele (Chatham) to lead away from the front row of the grid.

Eurotek Motorsport’s David McDonald (Ewell) made a slow start from third place allowing Rossi to take second ahead of Stoneman, Fisher, Mark Burdett Motorsport’s Ollie Hancock (Hook) and Falcon Motorsport’s Craig Copeland (Wimbourne). Lap one saw the retirement of Russell Racing’s Mark Gillibrand (Manchester) with a broken gear cable and Jigsaw Engineering’s Louis Hamilton-Smith (Stratford), who out-braked himself into Druids and beached in the gravel.

A second incident at Druids, involving Hillspeed Racing duo Chris Dittmann (Tewkesbury) and Ahmad Al Harthy (Hathersage) saw the red flag brought out to recover the stricken car of the Omani driver, who was forced into the gravel in avoidance of his team-mate.

The red flag benefited Lloyd, who was able to take the restart having joined the race from the pit lane prior to the stoppage. Steele was on pole position but was swamped on the first lap as Rossi, Stoneman and Fisher got away well. Hancock then passed Steele on lap two before the local racer suffered a big accident at Clearways as he went backwards into the crash barrier.

Desperate to score some championship points, Lloyd had a storming first lap to lie 17th at the end of the first tour, gaining one place on each of the next four laps before coming up behind Ian Pearson. He was comfortably ahead of Club Class second-placed man Tirone, with Morton, Fraser Smart and James Heffernan enjoying a close race for the podium places.

Taro Motorsport’s Ash Davies (Conwy) headed a train of four cars in seventh place but was passed on lap seven by Falcon’s Sten Pentus (Faringdon). On the same lap, 3K’s Racing’s Kieren Clark overtook Eurotek’s Tom Mun (Market Harborough) for ninth but was unable to find a way past Davies in the remainder of the 12-lap race.

Once past Pearson, Lloyd overtook Dittmann for 11th place and salvaged one championship point for 10th place when he passed Mun on the last lap. He also scored a bonus point for pole position, plus one for fastest lap at 46.700s (92.40mph).

However, Stoneman was easily holding onto second place and happy to follow Rossi on the tight Kent circuit. Rossi continued to lap consistently under the 47s mark to gradually extend his lead over Stoneman, winning by 3.763s. Fisher drove a solid race in third to take his first podium since round one, narrowly ahead of Hancock and McDonald.

A series of four quick laps in the middle part of the race saw Tirone open a gap in second place of the Club Class, with Morton holding off Smart by just over half a second to claim his second podium of the season.

Commenting on his victory, Rossi said: “I had Dean right behind me in the early part of the race until my tyres warmed up and then I was able to hold him off quite comfortably. After that it was a case of treating it like a qualifying session and get some consistent lap times. The car fe