Hathersage-based Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship team Hillspeed enjoyed a superb outing at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire over the weekend, 3rd/4th July, with James Theodore taking his maiden victory and team-mate Alice Powell securing a pair of tremendous second place finishes.
Theodore was undoubtedly the dominant driver over the course of the third event of the season and he started as he meant to go on, scorching to a brace of pole position starts for rounds five and six of the campaign and doing so in sensational style.
Needing only four laps in which to take pole for the first race with a superb time of 1m19.756 seconds (95.91mph) – an incredible eight 10ths of a second quicker than anyone – the Telford racer doubled-up for round six. Requiring just one flying lap, his time of 1m20.637 seconds (94.87mph) was six 10ths of a second better than his nearest challenger.
In Sunday’s first race, Theodore was in control from the off and by the end of lap two he had a substantial 2.5 second cushion. Increasing his lead to almost six seconds by the end of lap nine, the Shropshire teenager’s advantage was eroded due to a short Safety Car period but at the re-start he pulled clear again to an eventual winning margin of 2.7 seconds. He also posted the fastest lap.
Powell, who visited the top step of the rostrum at Silverstone during the previous event, charged through from fifth on the grid – qualifying within two 10ths of a second of the front row for round five – to take a fantastic second place finish for her third podium of the year.
Moving into third on the opening tour, the Chipping Norton-based driver moved into second place on lap three and remained there to the chequered flag on lap 16 to follow home Theodore. In doing so, the team-mates helped make history for Hillspeed with the result marking the squad’s first ever one-two finish in Formula Renault.
“We’re all absolutely delighted with the team performance this weekend, especially in race one”, said Hillspeed principal Richard Ollerenshaw, “It’s nice to finally get a Hillspeed one-two in Formula Renault BARC, James and Alice performed very impressively. James was outstanding in qualifying and looked super comfortable in the first race as did Alice, she was exceptional.”
Anglo-German rookie Josephine Ferrada produced a particularly strong performance in race one, especially considering her lack of experience of Croft’s 2.12-mile track. Prior to Saturday’s opening qualifying session, the 17-year-old had never even seen the circuit before so to get up-to-speed in double quick time was highly impressive.
Recording the 15th fastest time in each session, Ferrada went on to drive a very good first race and didn’t buckle when under pressure to record an excellent 10th place result – her first top 10 finish since debuting in Formula Renault BARC with Hillspeed a few weeks ago. In race two, the Chester-based driver finished in 15th position.
Powell’s second race performance was perhaps even stronger than her first with an excellent drive to the runner-up spot once more, finishing a mere 0.130 seconds shy of the win to seal her fourth podium of 2010. Starting fourth on the grid, she moved into second on lap one while team-mate Theodore had the severe misfortune of stalling on pole position and dropping to the tail of the field.
Powell challenged eventual race winner Luke Wright hard and after a Safety Car period during the second half of the outing, she piled on the pressure even more during the closing stages. Theodore, meanwhile, produced a supreme fight-back to climb all the way through from 15th position on lap one to fifth at the conclusion, just a 10th of a second outside the top four.
Ollerenshaw added: “Overall the weekend has been fantastic. It was such a shame James stalled at the start of race two – in two and a half years with us he’s never stalled and then it happens when he’s on pole! It was so unfortunate but he was extremely lucky not to be collected. His drive back through the order was exceptional. He worked very hard and was very close to being on the podium.
“Alice had a couple of issues in qualifying but she was right on it in both races, thoroughly deserving her two podiums. Thanks to those, she’s really closed up on the championship lead and is looking very strong. She definitely had the pace to win race two. We’ve been very impressed with Josephine this weekend, she’d never seen Croft before Saturday morning so her performances were terrific.”
There is now a four week break in the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship calendar with the seventh and eighth rounds of the season taking place at Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk over the weekend 31st July/1st August. Hillspeed’s Ginetta Junior Championship team will then be in action at the East Anglian track just seven days later on 7th/8th August.
2010 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship Driver Standings (after Rds5&6):2nd Alice Powell, 156pts; 5th James Theodore, 113pts; =14th Josephine Ferrada & Steven Durrant, 37pts
