FORMULA Renault’s Winter Championship is a dead-heat after two rounds, with Patrick Hogan (Killiney, Co. Dublin) and Junior Strous (Wassenaar, Holland) taking a win apiece at Brands Hatch yesterday.
Hogan made amends for losing the lead in round one with a commanding performance during the afternoon, pulling out a six second lead over his Dutch rival Strous after a daring over-taking move at Druids Hairpin.
But at the start it seemed the race would be an action-replay of the earlier battle, with Strous pouncing off the line from third and taking the lead from pole-sitter Cong Fu Cheng (Oxford). “I need to practice starts over the winter,” said Hogan who drives for Fortec Motorsport. “I just haven’t had enough experience like the guys I’m racing against. Junior Strous has been racing in Renaults longer than I’ve been in motorsport! I knew he was going to be good off the line and my start wasn’t exactly brilliant and neither was Franky’s so it made him look pretty spectacular. But I was having none of him winning the second race so I went down the inside at Druids.”
Hogan quickly pulled out a substantial lead but Strous says that was due to mechanical difficulties. “I braked into the corner and Paddy’s car ran into mine,” said the Dutch Formula Renault vice-champion, who also came seventh in this year’s Formula Renault Eurocup. “I almost spun off and my wish bone broke. I couldn’t keep up with Paddy for the rest of the race.”
Strous proved himself to be a formidable racer off the line, driving around the outside of both Hogan and Cong Fu Cheng (Oxford) to take the lead from third on the grid. “Racing is really impulsive,” he said. “You can’t really plan it. I got a lot of wheel spin in the first race and the track is at a slight camber so I thought I wouldn’t be able to jump them both. But I found some grip and the car really shot away.”
Cheng finished third in the race after pressuring Strous all the way. “At the start I was concentrating on braking late and getting the apex right,” said the Chinese driver. “Strous obviously got a very good start and I was surprised. For the first two laps I attacked as much as I could and the day has been a big lesson for me.”
Richard Keen (Amersham, Bucks) started seventh but managed to make the most of a hectic battle between Dennis Retera (Eindhoven, Holland) and Jeremy Metcalfe (Fleet, Hampshire), passing them both at Graham Hill Bend: “There was a big gaggle of us all in a train to start off with and then it all kicked off with people dicing around,” said the 19-year-old Manor Motorsport driver. “I had my thinking head on and backed off a little but then made the most of other people’s mistakes.”
Keen did not start the day’s first race after colliding with a stranded car on the grid but he is still confident he can prove himself in the winter championship. “I’m hoping for rain again at Croft next weekend,” he said. “It takes a lot of natural ability to race in the wet. Your vision is very bad if you’re in the middle of the pack and you have to be quite daring especially if you’re trying to over-take.”
Metcalfe had a difficult race amidst a melée of strong competition but managed to keep all but Keen behind him. In the end it came to nothing when the 17-year-old Team AKA driver was excluded for an incident with Fabio Onidi (Milan, Italy).
Provisional round one result:1. P. Hogan; 2. J. Strous; 3. C. Cheng; 4. R. Keen; 5. D. Retera; 6. M. Niemela; 7. J. Sutton; 8. R. Gonzalez; 9. M. Kool; 10. B. Ellis.
Winter Championship points:
1. P. Hogan: 62; 1. J. Strous: 62; 3. J. Sutton: 41; 4. Denis Retera: 40; 5. C. Cheng: 39; 6. B. Ellis: 27; 7. R. Gonzalez: 23; 8. R. Keen: 22; 9. J. Metcalfe: 22; 10. Mervyn Kool: 22
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Full result times available at msttiming.com
