4th place in round 7 of the Snetterton round of the highly acclaimed Formula Renault was a season best for the 18 year old Tadlow based Hertfordshire lad, during an action packed race with 2 red flags forcing restarts and shortened race distances
Qualifying well in 5th position for the first race and only 3 tenths behind the pole sitter. A terrific start saw KC pull up to 3rd on the first corner but by the second corner Lloyd managed to squeeze through. After 2 laps of fending of Stoneman, KC finally succumbed to 5th then the first of 2 red flags came out.
Following the restart KC held 5th for 2 laps until the red flag came out again!
The final restart of the day, for a 5 lap sprint race, saw Hancock make a move round the outside and onto the grass but held position demoting KC to 6th. Pressurising Mun for 2 laps, KC managed to slip through on the Esses and set off in chase of the leading pack.
On the last lap, KC was right on the tail of McDonald, and a slow exit from the last corner saw KC slip through for a well deserved 4th place, by a mere 0.8sec.
Tony Clark, Team manager, commented “I’m very happy with that performance. We are still moving upwards with each race and KC is showing maturity in his racing to move up through the field in this highly competitive series. He is beating some very experienced drivers so we think things are going well.”
Sunday saw another early qualifying session for the Formula Renaults and some unfortunate timing saw the session red flagged as KC was on a flying lap. With only half the session left, KC had to concentrate to put in a string of good laps to keep in contention.
A late charge resulted in a grid position of 7th, only 2 hundreds off 6th and less than half a second away from pole. With the average speed of the 1.95 mile track hitting 102mph, and all of the top cars within 0.5mph of each other, demonstrated again just how competitive this series is. KC reflected on qualifying “I didn’t get a lot of time to get my tyres warm, and spent most of the session trying to find space. As soon as I was in a clear space and was going for it, the red flag came out, then everyone bunched up and it was really difficult to get some clear track. “
“Looking at my time in the car, I’m relatively happy. My start yesterday was nerve racking and I was feeling the pressure of the more experienced drivers around me, but once we got going, I knew I could match them. Knowing I can make a good start, I’m relatively ok with where we are today.”
Round 8 saw Kieren storm away from 7th on the grid only to be squeezed by the outside car with some ensuing tyre rubbing causing a bent steering arm. As KC was picking up the pieces, the red flag was out, but Kieren had dropped down to 9th.
A rather dubious KC was instructed on the restart grid to ”just go for it”, even though the steering was off! A quick look at the front wheels showed no major damage, although most of the tyre markings had been “rubbed” off from outside of both left and right front tyres!
A clean getaway saw KC make places, then push Fisher hard for 2 laps until he got on the inside of him to move up to 6th. For the rest of the remaining laps, KC was flying to try to catch Copeland, who had managed to pull clear from the battling pair, and saw Kieren setting a new fastest lap on lap 10, but was pipped by 2 thousandths by eventual winner Stoneman in the last lap. This charge closed up the gap to under half a second, but with the shortened race distance it wasn’t to be and a well deserved 6th place was the reward for the afternoon.
A somewhat disappointed KC pointed out, “if it hadn’t have been for the incident in the first lap I would have picked up some more places. My steering was well off, which made things a bit interesting. Overall it’s been a good weekend and I think I’ve showed I have the pace of the front runners. I’m really looking forward to the next rounds at Brands, which is one of my favourite circuits. “
For the next rounds of the Formula Renault BARC championship, funds permitting, we will be at Brands Hatch on August 26th and 27th. If you are interested in working with us as part of your advertising or entertainment package, then contact us at info@3ksracing.co.uk.
