This weekend saw the Renault Formula Renault BARC series at Thruxton for round 11, a single race and qualifying on the same day. Optimism of qualifying 4th was sadly crushed with a race that never started for the 18 year old Bedford Autodrome race instructor.

  Qualifying took place earlier in the morning. With no practicing the previous day, it was all down to the 20 minutes on track to get the best from the car. A stunning effort saw Kieren qualify 4th, his best position yet, and only 2 tenths of a second from pole  and a relatively comfortable gap of 3 tenths to the car behind.

The grid positions were very close on the track and the positioning had KC with a clear view of the track ahead, and only a cars length behind the eventual race winner Lloyd.

It all came to nothing though, as on the green flag lap KC pulled off with no power and had to sit out the race, as pole man Rossi pulled off in the first lap, to leave Lloyd the eventual winner and the chance of a possible podium vanished with a broken battery cable.

“I couldn’t believe it when the engine died” said a disappointed KC, “I was gutted. Having missed out on the test day last month, that all of the top 10 teams went to, I wasn’t expecting to be straight on the pace, but the car felt great in qualifying and the set-up was spot on.” 

“Its such a kick in the stomach for the whole team after doing such a good job this morning, so now we’ve got to look forward to the next race.”

The final round of this year’s championship is at Cheshire’s Oulton Park, on Saturday September 29th, with both qualifying and race on the same day.