Hampshire single-seater star Jeremy Metcalfe is looking forward to a return
to his ‘home’ venue Thruxton Circuit next weekend, 13th/14th October, for the
final two rounds of the 2007 Formula Renault UK season, the 19-year-old racer
bidding to end what is likely to be his final season in the series with a brace
of podium finishes.
The current campaign has been littered with bad luck for the AKA Cobra
driver but  through it all he has still produced some outstanding race
performances, in particular his victory from pole position at Brands Hatch Indy
Circuit at the beginning of the year and another superb win at Oulton Park
Island Circuit mid-season.
In addition, a further podium at Thruxton during the first of the
campaign’s two meetings at the Hampshire venue and two more rostrum visits – at
Snetterton and during the second Brands Hatch Indy event of the year – have also
been major highlights.
Fifth in the driver standings on 297 points, the battle over a top five
finish is set to be incredibly close next weekend and will undoubtedly provide a
great spectacle with Riki Christodoulou and Richard Singleton within striking
distance. Jeremy, however, will be fully focused on taking control of his own
destiny by challenging at the front from the off.
The BillChaser-backed racer has shown a terrific never-say-die attitude
throughout the season and during the official Formula Renault UK test at
Thruxton in early August he prepared well by setting the sixth fastest time
overall. Although relatively pleased with that result, he is hoping for better
during qualifying a week on Saturday.
“I’m looking forward to Thruxton, we had a podium there earlier in the year
and so I’d like to end the season with a couple more”, said Jeremy, “Ideally I
want to end the season with a win but we won’t know where we are compared to the
others until qualifying.
“I’m hopeful the weekend will be good as it’s been quite a disappointing
year with all of the bad luck we’ve had. We were quite strong during the
Thruxton test a couple of months ago but the weather was warmer then so the
order on the day isn’t necessarily what it’ll be next weekend. I’m
confident we’ll be strong though.”
With a number of racing options open to the Loughborough University student
in 2008, Jeremy’s career path could go in any one of several directions but for
the time being he is putting all of his effort into the final two
races of the Formula Renault UK season.
“We haven’t even started to make any decisions about the route we want to
take next year but we’ll look at doing some testing over the winter – in what
though I’ve no idea at the moment! For now, I’m only thinking about next
weekend’s races at Thruxton. When the championship is over, then we can start
looking at what 2008 has in store for us.”
Qualifying for rounds 19 and 20 of the 2007 Formula Renault UK Championship
will take place on Saturday, 13th October, at 10.20 and 14.40 respectively. Both
of the weekend’s races will then be held on Sunday, 14th October, with round 19
scheduled to begin at 12.20 and round 20 expected to get underway at
17.00.
Provisional 2007 Formula Renault UK Standings (after Rd18 – inc
drop score)
1st Duncan Tappy, 451pts; 2nd Dean Smith, 444pts;
5th Jeremy Metcalfe, 297pts
|
News 
