9/16/2007

Lloyd Wins At Thruxton To Send Title Fight To The Wire

CF Racing’s Hywel Lloyd (Corwen) kept his Formula Renault BARC Championship title hopes alive with his fifth victory of the season at Thruxton circuit on Sunday, 16th September. The Welshman led home Eurotek Motorsport’s David McDonald (Ewell) and Mark Burdett Motorsport’s Ollie Hancock (Hook), with championship leader Dean Stoneman (Southampton) in fourth. Stoneman now leads the FR2000 Class standings by six points with one race left.

JH Motorsport’s James Heffernan (London) took his first Club Class win of 2007 ahead of Reon Motorsport’s Iain Morton (London) and Muzz Race’s Adrian Dixon (Harpenden). Recently crowned triple champion Ian Pearson (Didcot) looked set for a comfortable win before a rear suspension failure ended his race less than two laps from the end, while dad Bob Pearson (Didcot) lost his chance of the win by spinning on the last lap after inheriting the lead.

A total of 30 cars filled the grid at the high-speed 2.36-mile Hampshire circuit with Worswick Engineering’s Rossi (Blackburn) on pole for the first time this season after a great display in the morning’s qualifying session saw him set a benchmark time of 1min 14.398s (114.00mph). Lloyd joined him on the front row just 0.109s behind, while McDonald and 3K’s Racing’s Kieren Clark (Tadlow) were within another tenth of a second on the second row.

Clark’s race did not even get going, however, as a broken battery cable saw him pull off the circuit on the green flag lap. Rossi led away from pole position as Lloyd held off McDonald and Stoneman through the Complex. Misfortune then struck for Rossi as part of his aerodynamic bodywork rubbed against his rear tyre, causing it to deflate and force him into retirement and leaving the way clear for Lloyd to lead.

Hancock had a great first lap from eighth on the grid to take second place exiting Club chicane, while Double M Racing’s Aaron Steele (Chatham) worked his way up from seventh to fourth, relegating Stoneman to fifth. Ian Pearson led Club Class in 12th overall, with Bob Pearson 18th overall just ahead of Heffernan and Roberto Tirone (Amberley).

A clear track allowed Lloyd to extend his lead on lap two, while Stoneman passed both McDonald and Steele to take third. Ian Pearson dropped four places, while the Club Class cars of Fraser Smart (Kilsyth), John Johnsen (Houlsyke), Steven Durrant (Rayleigh) and Adrian Dixon were separated by less than one second as they crossed the line.

Lap five of 12 saw McDonald pass Stoneman for fourth place through Church corner, the fastest part of the circuit. McDonald’s Eurotek team-mate Tom Mun (Market Harborough) had already taken sixth place from Falcon Motorsport’s Sten Pentus (Oxford) on the previous lap.

As the race entered its second half, Lloyd held a four-second lead over Hancock who was being caught by McDonald. The 17-year-old took second place on lap seven as Steele also looked to capitalise, McDonald going on to set the fastest lap of the race on lap nine at 1min 14.793s (113.40mph).

After trying to take third place, Steele soon found himself down in fifth as Stoneman passed him on the inside at Club chicane after getting a great run up Woodham Hill. In Club Class, Ian Pearson was lapping quicker than the majority of the newer FR2000 Class cars but saw his race end on lap 11. With the two classes of car having finally separated, Heffernan was now tucked in behind Bob Pearson but still dicing with Iain Morton as the pair swapped positions more than once during the final three laps.

Following Ian’s retirement, Bob Pearson’s spin at Cobb corner in the Complex meant Heffernan and Morton were now battling for the lead. Morton held the speed advantage through the first half of the lap, but Heffernan was able to pass him on the run to Club chicane to take his first Class victory of the season.

At the head of the field, Lloyd was untroubled as he negotiated the back markers on his way to a 2.