as he scythes his way through the field

There might not have been a great deal of overtaking in the second meeting of the 2011 Formula Renault BARC Championship around Brands Hatch’s Indy Circuit, but if there was a move to be made, Russ Danzey ensured that he was the man making it, with a breathtaking charge through the field from the very back of the pack.

Having claimed a brilliant top ten finish on his Formula Renault BARC debut with the Mark Godwin-run MGR Motorsport outfit three weeks earlier at Donington Park – even if he was unceremoniously removed from contention in race two by a wayward rival – Russ headed to Brands Hatch in optimistic mood.

“I felt quite confident,” confirmed the talented young Sheffield speed demon. “Of course, the second race at Donington hadn’t gone too well, but we felt we had some pace. I had raced at Brands Hatch before and we’d tested there, as well, so I knew the track quite well. The first corner – Paddock Hill Bend – is just fantastic! The Indy Circuit is a short lap but it’s good fun to drive, and whilst it’s not the easiest track to overtake around, it is possible if you know how – it’s all about knowing when to take your chances.”

Russ certainly did that over the course of the weekend, and a positive practice day saw him immediately inside the top ten, just four tenths of a second shy of the leading pace – before a coil issue unfortunately restricted his running in the opening qualifying session and prevented the highly-rated Dore-based ace from setting a representative lap time. Fortunately, the problem was rectified in time for the second session, which produced a more accurate barometer of the 16-year-old’s form with an encouraging 11th place in the 22-strong field.

“We were pleased with that, especially given how much track time we had missed out on in relation to everybody else,” he conceded. “It was incredibly tight, with just a second covering the top 18, and three tenths was all I needed to move up onto the front row!”

From plum last on the grid in race one, Russ was psyched up in the knowledge that he had absolutely nothing to lose, but with his starting position being on an incline, his car kept inching forwards, and in trying to counter that movement – which could have resulted in a jump-start penalty – the MSA Academy member unfortunately knocked his left foot off the clutch and the engine cut out.

Lady Luck, however, was smiling upon him, as a red flag for a start-line shunt meant there would have to be a re-start – although in Russ’ case, this would be from the pit-lane after the rest of the field had sped by, and he completed the opening lap almost 17 seconds behind the leader and the best part of ten seconds behind the driver directly in front of him. He takes up the story.

“I thought I might just about latch onto the back of the pack by the end of the race,” he revealed. “I could see I was closing on them, but I didn’t think I was going to be able to get near enough to attack. It was mainly an exercise in damage limitation, to be honest, to just stay out there and perhaps make up some places if other drivers came off.

“The car felt really good, though – really nicely-balanced – and I was gaining time everywhere. With it being so difficult to overtake around Brands Hatch, that was bunching the field right up and they all started fighting each other. Three of them went off, and I managed to pass another three or four.

“I actually made one place around the outside of Paddock Hill Bend. One thing that’s very easy to do around the Indy Circuit is to make your car very wide, and when I got onto the back of this particular driver, he immediately started defending everywhere. He went quite tight into the last corner, but that allowed me to go out wide and get a better run than him onto the pit straight.

“I was initially thinking about trying to get the cutback on him coming out of Paddock Hill and heading up to Druids, but as we went along the pit straight, I realised I was getting further-and-further alongside and I knew I was going to brake later than him – so I decided to go for it. Once I actually was alongside on the outside I was a bit less sure about it, but I kept my foot in and it paid off!

“To finish 13th from the pit-lane was certainly a lot more than I could have expected from the race – we were really pleased with that. I was just disappointed with my mistake at the start, which probably cost me more places; if I had been able to clear the second group I was coming up to by the end, we would have been looking at about eighth position, because I was quicker than them, too – we just ran out of time. Still, given that everyone says Formula Renault is just single-file around Brands Hatch, I think we proved them wrong...”

That much is indisputable, and the seventh-quickest lap time – comfortably faster than either of his two MGR team-mates – underlined what might have been. If race two was a rather more ‘processional’ encounter throughout the field, still it impressively yielded a second top ten finish from just four starts in the championship for the Birkdale School AS-level student, and a better lap time than that of the runner-up – the closest he had been to the outright pace all weekend – pointed to outstanding progress and potential going forwards.

“We definitely need to look at getting higher up the grid in qualifying to improve our chances on race day,” Russ concluded, “although the other tracks won’t be as hard to overtake at as Brands Hatch was. Looking back at the weekend, of course there were things we could have done better, but that’s all part of the learning process of moving into cars, and I’m really pleased with how we all performed as a team.

“We learned a lot about the car, and I feel we took another big step forward. There’s plenty more still to come, too, and now I’m just looking forward to the next round at Oulton Park. I’ve tested there already and loved it – it’s a brilliant track! We struggled a little bit pace-wise in the test, but we were still in the very early stages then – and I’m much more confident now.”

Russ is seeking sponsorship for the remainder of 2011; if you are interested in backing South Yorkshire’s brightest budding F1 hope, please contact his father Rob on 07779 995555 or at: robert.danzey@mac.com