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Manor Competition heads to its home circuit, Donington Park, next weekend
for the 17th and 18th rounds of the 2007 Formula Renault UK season and hopes are
high of a great team performance from the crack Nottinghamshire squad.
The New Ollerton outfit, which goes into the event on 8th/9th September on
the back of a superb debut showing in the Formula Renault Northern European Cup
at Germany’s Nurburgring last weekend, is looking forward to its return to
Donington Park for what will undoubtedly be the biggest meeting of the year,
supporting the World Series by Renault.
With over 100,000 enthusiasts expected to attend, the race weekend will be
a fantastic spectacle and with Alexander Sims having claimed his maiden
single-seater race victory at Donington’s National Circuit configuration in
mid-July, both driver and team are bidding to repeat the result on the
world-famous Grand Prix layout.
As Manor’s sole entry in the Formula Renault NEC last weekend, Sims made a
superb  debut by qualifying in fourth and fifth position for the two races.
Although a broken steering rack forced a retirement in the opening encounter,
the 19-year-old raced well to leave the Nurburgring with a top five result in
race two.
“Nurburgring was a great weekend, we really enjoyed it and Alexander made
some good progress”, reflected team boss Tony Shaw, “He’s gaining more
confidence each time he sits in the car and is starting to become a real force
which we always knew would happen with time and experience. He stands a great
chance of podiums at Donington.”
Excellent performances aren’t the sole preserve of Peterborough racer Sims
however, with Kris Loane and Alex Morgan having both made impressive strides
during recent rounds. In particular, the last two race meetings at Snetterton
and Brands Hatch saw both drivers begin to come of age in single-seaters.
At Donington next weekend, Loane and Morgan hope to build on their
respective  season’s best results – the Northern Irishman’s being fifth position
during round 13 at Snetterton, which also earned him Driver of the Day status,
and Welshman Morgan’s a top seven showing in the same race.
Shaw added: “Everyone is happy, buoyant and working hard and we’ll
certainly do our best to achieve some excellent results – hopefully we’ll hit
the front. Considering Kris’ lack of experience he’s starting to show some much
more experienced drivers the way which is great to see and his pace isn’t far
away from the top three.
“Alex enjoyed a good run at Snetterton and at Brands he did very well,
especially when taking into account the wet conditions in which he’s had some
bad accidents in the past. To have such a good showing and to have gained such
confidence is brilliant. All three drivers are aiming for a strong run at
Donington, we’re looking forward to it.”
Manor Competition will return to the track this Wednesday, 5th September,
for official testing at Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit with qualifying for
the 17th and 18th rounds of the season scheduled to take place on Saturday, 8th
September, at 13.15.
Both races are timetabled for Sunday, 9th September, with round 17
beginning the day’s action at 09.00 and round 18 expected to follow at 16.00.
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