Manor Competition's Josh Hill and Ollie Millroy shone brightly during the final two days of Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship pre-season testing this week - Hill heading the times at Oulton Park on Tuesday, 22nd March, and Millroy lapping second fastest at Rockingham on Thursday, 24th March.
With the first two races of the 2011 campaign taking place at Brands Hatch in Kent a week from now, 2nd/3rd April, this week's outings in Cheshire and Northamptonshire gave the teams one last opportunity to fine-tune their preparations for the 20 round championship.
In what has been a very strong pre-season test programme for New Ollerton-based Manor, the run at Oulton Park on Tuesday marked by far the most impressive outing yet for category rookie Josh Hill - son of British Racing Drivers' Club President Damon, the 1996 FIA Formula One World Champion.
Not only did he end the day with the quickest time of all at the 2.23-mile Island Circuit configuration, the Farnham 20-year-old was the only driver to lap under the 1m19 second bracket with a fantastic effort of 1m18.736 seconds (101.77mph) - placing him a full 0.3 seconds ahead of his closest rival.
In the opening session, Hill started as he meant to go on by leading the Manor charge with the second best time of 1m19.264 seconds (101.10mph), a fraction ahead of third placed team-mate Alice Powell who produced a great effort of 1m19.326 seconds (101.02mph). This ended up being her fastest lap of the day and also meant she left Oulton Park as the top Graduate Cup runner.
The Chipping Norton based 2010 Formula Renault BARC Champion should have been quicker still but when she was on, potentially, her hottest lap of the day near the conclusion, red flags were shown and the final session was curtailed. Millroy was fourth during the opening run with a time of 1m19.537 seconds (100.75mph), again a day's best for him as he didn't use new tyres at all, with Jordan King also producing his quickest time of the test in the first outing with a lap of 1m19.666 seconds (100.58mph) - only half a second covering the top six drivers.
Millroy and Powell on top form at Rockingham...
During Thursday's run at Rockingham's 1.94-mile International Super Sports Car Circuit, Millroy ended the outing as the top Manor driver with the second fastest lap of all - a time of 1m14.798 seconds (93.37mph) placing the 20-year-old from Claygate within 0.2 seconds of the outright pace. Heading session two with a lap of 1m15.591 seconds (92.39mph), he became the first driver to dip under the 1m15 second barrier in session three with a great time of 1m14.923 seconds (93.21mph) before improving further in session four but finishing the day second fastest.
Powell shot into the top three during the afternoon with a lap of 1m15.472 seconds (92.53mph) in session three before slicing another half second off her best in the final run. She concluded the day a superb third quickest overall thanks to a terrific effort of 1m14.961 seconds (93.16mph) - one of just three drivers, including Millroy, to break into the 1m14 second bracket.
Hill finished the Rockingham test seventh overall with a lap of 1m15.285 seconds (92.76mph), having overcome a spin and excursion in session one to progress to within 0.7 seconds of the top of the times by the end of the day. Warwickshire teenager King ended the first two sessions fifth and seventh respectively before posting his quickest effort of the day in the opening afternoon run, a time of 1m15.514 seconds (92.48mph) placing him fourth for the session and eventually ninth for the day.
Unfortunately, an electrical gremlin in the fourth and final outing meant he wasn't able to complete any further laps. Speaking on the final week of the pre-season, Manor Competition co-owner Sarah Shaw said: "We really have had a good few weeks during official testing, each of our drivers have been fast and they're all showing fantastic potential for the season. We're confident Josh, Alice, Jordan and Ollie can all be a consistent threat - now we can't wait for the racing to start next weekend!"
All attention now turns to the curtain-raiser of the 2011 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit. On Friday, 1st April, pre-event practice will take place with qualifying following on Saturday, 2nd April, at 09.30 and 14.45.
Both races will be contested on Sunday, 3rd April, with round one getting underway at 10.25 and round two set to commence at 16.05. The second encounter will be screened live in the UK on cable, digital satellite and Freeview channel ITV4 and also on the brand new ITV4 HD channel.
