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Bentley Battles Hard During BARC Return At Brands |
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Monday, 25 September 2006 |
Russell Racing star Andrew Bentley suffered mixed fortunes at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit today during the 11th round of the Formula Renault BARC Championship, the Northampton resident forced to battle back through the field after stalling on the grid.
The 24-year-old, who is making only his second appearance of the season in the FR2000 Class of the series as part of the championship finale this weekend, qualified 16th on the grid for this afternoon’s 20-lap race with a best time of 47.547 seconds (90.75mph).
Although wet weather was prevalent for most of the test, the morning
session did have a very small window where a handful of drivers
choosing to run slick tyres did benefit from a break in the rain. The
resulting times, therefore, do distort the true picture.
Jeremy, however, was genuinely competitive all day and in the afternoon
he set a best lap time of 49.063 seconds (87.94mph) to underline his
promise and look forward to a successful weekend.
“It’s been really good today”, explained Jeremy, “Basically we were
fastest all day in the wet. Although three or four drivers managed to
put in quicker times at the end, I wasn’t running at the time so I’m
feeling quite confident for tomorrow.
“Everything has been very encouraging, in the wet we know we’re strong
but I think we’ll still be competitive if it’s dry tomorrow. This
morning some drivers did put on slicks and set some fast times about
halfway through the session, but there was only a three or four lap
window in which to do that before it started raining again so the times
are misleading.
“We’re delighted with our performance though, the car has been very
good and we were able to run consistently quickly all day which is
promising. It’s been a very positive start to the weekend.”
The 17th and 18th rounds of the 2006 championship see Formula Renault
UK return to its regular slot on the British Touring Car Championship
support package. Qualifying for round 17 will take place tomorrow,
Saturday, 23rd September, at 11.20 with the round 18 session to follow
at 16.00.
Both races are scheduled for Sunday, 24th September, at 11.55 and 15.05
respectively and will be broadcast live on Motors TV, channel 413 of
the Sky Digital platform and through cable provider NTL on channel 545.
Formula Renault UK Championship Provisional Driver Standings (after rounds 15&16):
| Pos. |
Driver |
Points |
| 1st |
Patrick Hogan |
382 |
| 2nd |
Sebastian Hohenthal |
380 |
| 3rd |
Jeremy Metcalfe |
289 |
| = |
Sam Bird |
289 |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 December 2006 )
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