Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire provided a bittersweet 10th round of the season for leading Formula Renault BARC entrant Russell Racing on Saturday, the Doncaster outfit seeing its hopes of a potential podium result dashed during qualifying. But while series returnee Matt Shawyer saw his first event in four months dealt a blow through no fault of his own, local driver Martin Bloss produced one of the performances of the day to climb from a lowly 22nd on the grid to 13th place in the final classification.

Matt was expecting great things from the race meeting and, at the very least, the BRDC Rising Star felt confident of achieving his third podium in just five outings in the FR2000 Class of the championship.The morning’s 20-minute qualifying session got off to a good start for the 24-year-old from St Albans, Matt immediately getting up to speed and after six minutes had elapsed he had set the benchmark time.But as the session entered its crucial final stages, the Hertfordshire ace was tagged by a slower Club Class car at the fastest part of the circuit, Church Corner, ending Matt’s qualifying period early and costing him the chance to challenge for a front-row grid slot.Having completed just two thirds the number of laps posted by the rest of his rivals, Matt’s best time of 1m 15.233 seconds (112.75mph) was still highly creditable, less than four 10ths of a second shy of pole position, and confidence remained high of a good result in the 12-lap race.At the start, Matt made a sluggish getaway and lost a place to Ross Worswick but then enjoyed a good run towards the Campbell Complex as he attempted to make his way back up the order.In sixth position at the end of lap one it looked as though Matt would make progress towards the podium placings but he was soon handicapped by brake problems. Although rapid through Thruxton’s notoriously fast sweeps, he was unable to slow the car as he needed to on entry to either of the chicanes.Clearly compromising what he would be able to achieve, Matt did well to finish the race in seventh place with the problems, just three 10ths of a second behind Hywel Lloyd. His result was then boosted long after the chequered flag had fallen when Worswick found himself excluded from the race results, thus promoting Matt to sixth position.“After a slow getaway initially, I had a good run down to the first chicane and managed to make up ground”, explained Matt, “After that though, I just seemed to go backwards as I had real problems getting the car to slow down into the two chicanes.“The car was good through the quick stuff at the back of the circuit but as I struggled to stop it into the chicane each lap, I couldn’t make up the ground I needed to on the cars ahead. It’s been disappointing but if we hadn’t hit the problems we did in qualifying then I’m sure it would have been a different outcome today.”

For Martin, his first taste of Formula Renault BARC action in six months didn’t get off to the best of starts when the Andover driver qualified an uncharacteristic 22nd on the grid at his local track. The race was a totally different story though, the 43-year-old enjoying a great run to 14th place at the flag. By lap three, Martin had already made his way into the top 16 and soon passed Pierre Renom to take 15th place on lap four. Chris Lamare was the next target and on lap eight Martin produced another pass to demote the former karting star and seize 14th place. Having climbed a superb eight positions in the race, the most of any competitor, he was then credited with 13th position in the final results due to the Worswick exclusion.Commenting on his return to action, Martin said: “The race went by in a flash. The car was much better than in qualifying, but that was to be expected as we had a problem this morning which compromised our grid position.“I think a lot of the people ahead of me made mistakes and I capitalised on them, it was as simple as that really. I could have gone quicker, there was definitely more time in me and the car, but every time you thought you could get a really quick lap in you’d catch a backmarker or be dicing with someone.“I enjoyed it out there. I didn’t enjoy starting 22nd but it’s always great fun overtaking people and I think it was a decent result considering where we started, we used old tyres, and there’s also the fact I haven’t been in the car for six months. All in all, I’m happy.”For Russell Racing’s third driver, FR2000 debutant Gary Fletcher, the day proved to be a major learning curve but also a thoroughly enjoyable experience which the 54-year-old would certainly like to replicate – budget permitting. After qualifying 28th out of the 32 competitors, the Twickenham musician finished the race in 24th place, 23rd overall taking into account the exclusion. “Racing a proper carbon-fibre single-seater like the Formula Renault has ticked a box for me and is an experience I have thoroughly enjoyed”, said a delighted Gary, “I’ve caught the bug for driving these cars and all I need now is to win the lottery so I can go racing more regularly!“I couldn’t believe how quickly the race went by, the 12 laps had gone in a flash, but I’m confident with more time in the car, and some testing under my belt, I would be much more competitive. It’s been a terrific experience for me.”