|
Hitech Junior competes in its only
home race of the season when it tackles the second round of the 2008 Eurocup
Formula Renault 2.0 Championship at Silverstone this weekend. The circuit-based
team, in its debut season in the hotly contested series, is fielding four cars
for Miki Monras, Richard Singleton, Juan Jacobo and Luciano
Bacheta.
This year, the Eurocup series has
attracted a massive 48 entries, forcing the organisers to split the entry into
odds and evens for qualifying. From that the fastest 12 from each group go into
a Super Pole Shootout, with a drivers’ first and second quickest lap times
determining the first 24 cars on the grid for the two races. The remaining cars
then make up the back of the grid for each race.
Spaniard Miki Monras was
impressive in his appearance in the series last time out at Spa, comfortably
qualifying for the Super Pole shootout. In the second race of the weekend, he
drove superbly and was running in a seven-car battle for sixth place for much of
the race.
Richard Singleton came into 2008
as the reigning Winterseries champion and also comfortably qualified through the
first sessions at Spa. This despite having to pit for a replacement rear wing
and completing just one flying lap. In
his opening race, a storming start moved up him 10 places on the first lap such
was his race pace.
Juan Jacobo drove a similarly
impressive first lap in Belgium.
The Colombian stormed through the field and made up 14 places before
being hit by another car, bringing his charge to a premature end.
Luciano Bacheta, part of the Race
Drivers Academy Government Funded Driver Development Programme, was another
impressive youngster last time out.
Starting 28th, the Briton passed 13 cars at the flag to cross
the line 15th and uphold team honours.
This weekend’s event as a support
race to the World Series by Renault series is free to the public and in previous
years has attracted more than 90,000 spectators.
For team owner David Hayle, the
event will see his team making its first home appearance of the season and one
which he is hoping will net its first win in the junior single-seater
class.
“Competing at Silverstone is
always a massive boost for us. In F3, Hitech Racing has had a fair bit of
success racing on our home circuit.
Hopefully that success will continue into the Junior team this
weekend.
“All four drivers are more than
capable of converting their test performance and their results last time out
into strong results here. They have all shown the potential to be right up at
the front and with two test sessions each on Thursday and Friday, they should be
right on the pace come qualifying on Saturday.”
The event will feature four one
and a half hour sessions on Thursday and Friday, split into odd and evens,
allowing each driver two sessions prior to the qualifying for the Super Pole
shootout at 09:00 and 09:25 on Saturday. The Super Pole session will take place at
10:50 on Saturday with the first of two
races at 16:00 that afternoon. The final race will be on Sunday at
11:30.
|
News 
