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Littlejohn And Singleton Claim Pembrey Victories |
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Tuesday, 22 August 2006 |
Hillspeed’s James Littlejohn (London) and Coles Racing’s Richard Singleton (Conwy, Wales) took one win apiece as the Formula Renault BARC Championship visited Pembrey for rounds eight and nine on 19th/20th August. Eurotek Motorsport’s Jordan Oakes (Hopton, Norfolk) finished second in both races but remains 18 points behind Singleton in the race for the title. Worswick Engineering’s Rossi (Blackburn) secured his fourth podium finish of the season by taking third place in round nine.
Ian Pearson (Didcot, Oxon) took maximum Club Class points in both races ahead of Reon Motorsport’s Mark Terry (Chatham, Kent) to leave him just one win away from retaining his Club Class title. James Heffernan completed the Club Class podium with a pair of third place finishes.
After a wet qualifying session for round nine, a further rain shower just before the start of the race prompted a late change onto wet tyres for the day’s first race. Pole-sitter Oakes was beaten away from the line by second placed Littlejohn, who set about opening an early lead. Just behind the leading group, Hillspeed’s Michael Broadhurst (Cheltenham) passed Mark Burdett Motorsport’s Craig Copeland (Wimbourne, Dorset) for sixth place, with Copeland’s team-mate Tom Arme (Staffordshire Moorlands) also getting the better of him to claim seventh on the following lap.
Ian Pearson slipped back two places on lap two as FR2000 Class drivers Emma Selway (Tring, Herts) and Chris Lamare (Inkberrow, Worcester) went ahead but with Louis Hamilton-Smith (Stratford Upon Avon) overtaking Mark Terry on lap six, Pearson’s Club Class lead was still safe.
At the head of the field, Littlejohn and Oakes were well clear of Singleton, with Oakes never more than six-tenths of a second behind the leader after erasing the early advantage. Littlejohn’s only respite came when passing back-marker Robin Palmer (Yelverton, Devon) but Oakes soon closed on his gearbox once clear of the Falcon Motorsport man.
Having qualified fourth, Falcon Motorsport’s Andrew Meyrick (Oakmere, Cheshire) was forced to drive a recovery race after a first lap spin and made his way to 12th place by passing Pearson on lap eight. He set the Fastest Lap of the race on lap 11 with a time of 1min 00.120s (87.18mph) to give an insight to what might have been had he started well, before passing Mark Burdett Motorsport’s Denis Autier (London) and Lamare on the final lap to claim the last points position of 10th.
After a race-long battle, Littlejohn prevailed by just 0.524s over Oakes, with Singleton a distant third, some five seconds adrift. Ian Pearson finished in 13th overall with Mark Terry in 17th. James Heffernan passed Muzz Race’s Adrian Dixon on lap nine to claim third place in Club Class, finishing more than 16 seconds clear by the end of 15 laps.
For race two, Singleton beat Oakes to pole position by just 0.083s with Rossi and Littlejohn sharing the second row, separated by an even narrower margin of 0.003s. As the flag dropped, Rossi made the cleanest start of the leading quartet to beat Oakes to the first corner with Singleton keeping his lead.
Further down the grid, Hywel Lloyd (Corwen) leapt five places up the order to fifth with Tom Arme dropping three places to ninth. Autier was another to fall back, moving from ninth to 14th, while Hamilton-Smith spun halfway round the first tour of the 1.46-mile circuit to drop to 22nd and last place.
Club Class leader Ian Pearson avoided the traffic to gain three places on the opening lap and put two FR2000 Class cars between himself and Mark Terry, who began one place behind Pearson in 17th. Although the recovering Autier passed Pearson, Terry was never able to close sufficiently to challenge for the Class win and had to settle for second.
On lap three, Oakes pulled off a good overtaking move on the inside of Rossi at Honda Curve, leading onto the start/finish straight. On the following lap, Arme finally passed Michael Broadhurst having been swarming all over his gearbox for the opening three laps. At the same time, Welch Motorsport’s Chris Murray (Salisbury, Wilts) passed Emma Selway and Autier got ahead of Ian Pearson.
At the front, Singleton was asserting his authority over the chasing pack by building a three-second lead in the space of two laps. When Oakes passed Rossi, the margin grew to more than four seconds and although Oakes began to close slightly as the halfway point of the race approached, his charge was halted by a red flag.
At the start of lap nine, Autier spun on the start/finish straight while trying to negotiate a tussle between Murray and David Scott (Heathfield, E Sussex) and Emma Selway (Lancaster), following closely in 12th place, was helpless to avoid hitting Autier. The pair came to rest at Hatchets Hairpin and with more than 50 per cent of the race distance completed, the result was declared.
Two podium finishes each for Singleton and Oakes, together with respective bonus points for pole position and fastest lap, means the pair remain separated by 18 points with three races left. James Littlejohn closes on Rossi in the battle for third place with his second victory of the season. In Club Class, James Heffernan climbs to fourth place in the drivers’ standings, while Sarah Lambert scored her first Championship points with a pair of sixth place finishes.
Round 10 of the Championship takes place at Thruxton on Saturday, 16th September.
Standings after Round Nine – Provisional
| Pos. |
Driver |
Nat. |
Team |
Points |
| FR2000 Class Standings |
| 1 |
Richard Singleton |
GBR |
Coles Racing |
112 |
| 2 |
Jordan Oakes |
GBR |
Eurotek Motorsport |
94 |
| 3 |
Rossi |
GBR |
Worswick Engineering Ltd |
78 |
| 4 |
James Littlejohn |
GBR |
Hillspeed |
69 |
| 5 |
Hywel Lloyd |
GBR |
CF Racing |
43 |
| Club Class Standings |
| 1 |
Ian Pearson |
GBR |
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137 |
| 2 |
Mark Terry |
GBR |
Reon Motorsport |
94 |
| 3 |
Andrew Webb |
GBR |
|
62 |
| 4 |
James Heffernan |
GBR |
|
60 |
| 5 |
Bob Pearson |
GBR |
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52 |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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