Mitchell Hale was cruelly denied overall victory in the Formula Renault BARC Championship after being knocked off the track by a rival in the closing round at Thruxton in Hampshire.
The 16-year-old Bristol racer was running in the top five of the opening race of the day, a result that would have set him up well for the second and final race later on. But he was punted off the circuit and down to 12th position, before making a strong recovery over the final few laps to finish eighth.
In the second race, Mitchell was charging hard in a nothing-to-lose situation when he ran wide onto the grass. That forced him down to 13th place, but a magnificent recovery, in which he showed superb racecraft, brought him up to fifth at the end.
It had all looked good at the beginning of the day, when Hale narrowly missed out on taking a clean sweep of the day’s pole positions. He took the pole spot for race one, but was less than 0.06 seconds adrift of the top spot for race two – with the leading runners so closely matched, that put him fourth on the grid!
“Qualifying was good,” he said. “I got pole but my second lap wasn’t good enough – I thought I was a little bit unlucky in traffic. But it was a good base to work from.
“The first race I was running in a good position and then I got hit. I’d like to think that it was unintentional, but it cost me a season’s work, because we’ve been leading the championship all year. It damaged the car, but it was OK to drive, although it got a lot worse on the last lap.”
“The team did a good job repairing the car for the second race, but I made a little bit of a mistake and ran wide onto the grass. From then on I just got it lit up really – there was nothing else I could do but go for it.”
Hale now looks ahead to the 2011 season, where he hopes to move up to another category after a very strong opening season in single-seaters. “I haven’t got much money at the moment,” he said. “I bought a ticket for Euro Millions but that didn’t work either! Formula Renault UK is the natural next step, but I’d love to race in Formula 3.”
Richard Dutton, team principal of the Fortec Motorsport team for which Hale has raced all season, reckons the young racer has the talent to go much further in the sport. Fortec runs teams in many categories, providing drivers with a ladder towards Formula 1, and Dutton – who has nurtured many top racing stars in their junior days – would like to keep Hale within his squad.
“I’m sure he would be very good in a more senior category,” said Dutton. “He needs to get out in a car soon to put what happened today to the back of his mind. It’s such a shame, but what he has to take away from this is that it has been a fantastic year for him. One bad weekend shouldn’t be what he remembers, and after what happened in the first race it was pretty much out of his hands.
“He’s very disappointed, but he’s only 16 and he has plenty more years on his side to win championships.”
