Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship team Hillspeed is delighted to confirm Alice Powell has signed to race with the squad during the 2010 season alongside category returnee James Theodore.
The Chipping Norton based 17-year-old, who made her single-seater debut in the sister Michelin Formula Renault UK Championship last year with Manor Competition, has already established a strong profile as perhaps the country’s most promising female racer. During her first season, Powell secured a pair of excellent top 10 finishes and was sixth overall in the Graduate Cup class.
Eyeing a switch to the more cost-effective Formula Renault BARC Championship for 2010, the former Ginetta Junior Championship podium finisher opted to join category front-runners Hillspeed after a pair of successful test outings – the latest during a general session at Silverstone last Friday, 9th April.
As part of the deal the West Oxfordshire racer’s car will be engineered by Sarah Shaw, co-owner of Manor Competition. Highly respected throughout national single-seater racing, Shaw has a superb record of success in Formula Renault BARC having previously engineered Hywel Lloyd and Richard Singleton to championship glory. She also took Dean Smith to the 2009 Formula Renault UK title.
Hillspeed team principal Richard Ollerenshaw commented: “Obviously, we’re delighted to have Alice on board alongside James (Theodore) for the 2010 season, it’s an excellent line-up and we’re sure they’ll work very well together. In the UK championship last year, Alice proved what a highly capable driver she is. She has a very good chance indeed of doing well in BARC this season.
“Alice had been associated with a few other teams in recent weeks but we didn’t wish to comment on any testing we were doing with her until a deal had actually been done. She’s only had a couple of limited runs with us but everything went well. We’re equally delighted to be working with Sarah (Shaw) again – she’s undoubtedly one of the very best race engineers in Formula Renault.”
Graduating to car racing at the end of 2007 in the Ginetta Junior Winter Series, Powell was equal fifth in the driver standings and went on to secure four podiums during the main 2008 championship en-route to a highly competitive ninth overall in the points table. Switching to single-seater action last year in Formula Renault UK, Powell scored in 13 of the 20 races with a brace of top 10 finishes.
Speaking on her 2010 deal, Powell said: “Hopefully it’s going to be a good season. I’m delighted to have signed with Hillspeed and to have a quick team-mate like James (Theodore) is great. What makes everything even better is to have Sarah (Shaw) from Manor Competition linking-up with the team to engineer my car – it can only help boost my chances.”
Rounds one and two of the 2010 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship will take place this coming weekend, 17th/18th April, at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent. Qualifying will take place on Saturday, race one is scheduled to start at 10.30 on Sunday and race two will follow at 16.45.
