Morris Rockets Into Championship Lead With Rockingham Double

Two superb lights-to-flag victories for Seb Morris at Rockingham on Sunday, 20th May, enabled the 16-year-old racer to move to the top of the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship standings in only his second race meeting in the ultra-competitive one-make series.Having made an outstanding start to his single-seater career at Snetterton during the first event of the season last month, the Marford youngster continued his dominance of qualifying by maintaining his 100 per cent pole position record with his fourth and fifth grid-topping starts from as many races.From there, the Ginetta Ambassador – who is currently in the midst of his GCSE exams – sealed his second and third victories of the 2012 season to open-up a 12 point championship advantage over two-time McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist Scott Malvern.“It’s good to get the championship lead, that’s what I’m always aiming for”, commented Seb, “We focused on our consistency a lot in the races. I made a small mistake in race one but in the second race all my lap times were within four tenths of each other, apart from when I missed a gear at the last corner on one lap. The car was handling perfectly thanks to the guys at Fortec.”Round four qualifying on Saturday, 19th May, was badly affected by rain and red flag stoppages in equal measure but The King’s School, Chester pupil was unfazed by it all and simply delivered an excellent pole position lap of 1m41.055 seconds (69.11mph).Conditions improved for the round five session, although the track was still slippery, but the end result was the same with Seb taking yet another pole position – this time with a lap of 1m33.380 seconds (74.79mph), more than 1.1 seconds clear of his nearest challenger.Leading away well at the start of the first of the weekend’s encounters, the Fortec Motorsports driver opened up a substantial 1.3 second margin over the first 1.94 miles of racing and went on to build a cushion of four seconds prior to the emergence of the Safety Car on lap seven.Eliminating his advantage, Seb had it all to do again but he made a good re-start on lap nine to open up a lead of around two seconds. Over the final few laps, Malvern did close the Welshman down but Seb never looked under threat as he took his second win of the year.In round five, the winning margin was much greater – over three seconds to be precise – and Seb also bagged the bonus points for fastest lap with a time of 1m18.421 seconds (89.05mph). Again establishing a huge lead on the first lap, the reigning Ginetta Junior Champion ran unchallenged to his third win of 2012.“Rockingham is one of my least favourite tracks so to come away with two poles, two wins and fastest lap in the second race isn’t bad going”, he added, “Thruxton is next, I love the high-speed corners and we have a good set-up there so I’m really looking forward to it – it should be mega.”Rounds six and seven of the 2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship season will take place four weeks from now on Sunday, 17th June, at Thruxton near Andover – the fastest track on the calendar.Provisional 2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship Driver Standings (after Rd5):1st Seb Morris, 140pts

Related Motorsport Articles

84,520 articles