Car racing rookie Callum Bowyer reckons a podium finish between now and the end of the season is not out of the question in the 2011 Formula Renault BARC Championship, after producing a superb performance in what was incontestably his finest outing to-date at Croft.

Having graduated into single-seaters this year off the back of an ultra-successful national karting career, Callum took a giant leap forward in the third round of Formula Renault BARC’s 2011 campaign at Oulton Park – leaving him bullish about his prospects as the action resumed with round four at Croft in North Yorkshire.

“We had driven at Croft in an official pre-season test back in March, and it had gone really well,” revealed the talented young Peterborough speed demon. “It was my first time in the car in dry conditions and on slick tyres, and I had lapped sixth-quickest, which was really encouraging. I felt I had learned a lot since then and gained much more experience, so I was looking to have a strong weekend.

“I really like the track; it’s got everything – long straights, twisty and technical corners and some fast corners as well...a real mixture – and I just wanted to keep on improving and build upon my Oulton Park result. We’d shown really good pace at Oulton, which had done my confidence a lot of good and given me quite a big boost.”

That pace was palpably maintained during practice at Croft, as Callum lapped an eye-catching fourth-quickest on Thursday and then sixth on Saturday morning – or fourth-fastest again of the drivers not to elect to bolt on a set of fresh rubber – barely half-a-second adrift of the outright benchmark. Heading into qualifying, it was all looking extremely promising.

“We’ve tended to have better race pace than qualifying pace so far this year, so to be fourth and sixth-quickest over a single lap was really good,” affirmed the Antel Motorsport star. “Unfortunately, in qualifying, a number of factors conspired against us and when it really mattered, it all fell away from us a little bit.

“With the tyre performance at Croft, there was such a small window to actually put a lap together – and I think we missed that window. In the first session, I got traffic on my fastest lap, so that was out of our hands, which was a bit frustrating, and I think we took the best out of our tyres in that session which meant we struggled in the second one as well. The wind had changed direction since Friday, too, and it was slightly warmer, neither of which seemed to help us. It was just a really disappointing outcome overall.”

The upshot was an unrepresentative 11th place on the starting grid for race one and 12th for race two amongst the 21 competitors, but undeterred and unbowed, during the opening encounter, Callum went on to demonstrate the virtue of grittily refusing to give in.

“We knew we were on the back foot tyre-wise going into the races, but we changed a few things on the car which seemed to improve it and made it gentler on them,” he explained. “That enabled the tyres to last that little bit longer and allowed me to fight my way through.

“I knew our race pace would be good because it has been all season, and since there was so little to choose between a lot of the drivers around me on the grid in terms of lap times – literally just thousandths of a second – I simply concentrated on picking them off one-by-one. In the first race, I got a good start and managed to dodge an incident ahead when a few cars went off. I ended the opening lap in eighth and then tried to establish a decent rhythm.

“To be honest, it was quite a boring race from where I was sitting, but I gained steadily on the group of cars in front and on the last lap, the driver I was applying pressure upon went off. Then into the Complex, there was a coming-together between two more drivers and I was able to pass one of them. I had been expecting to finish seventh, so fifth was really quite a bonus!”

A bonus it might have been, but thoroughly well-deserved it was, too, as Callum ably demonstrated his raw pace and potential with the fourth-quickest lap time – better than the two drivers who took the chequered flag directly ahead of him – to turn his troubled qualifying around in style and match his best result in cars thus far.

Whilst conceding that ‘it would have been nice to have gained the positions by overtaking the others on the track’, the Gunthorpe ace nonetheless rightly acknowledged that ‘you’ve got to be there when it counts to be able to grab the opportunities when they arise’ – and he subsequently entered race two with his tail up.

“I got another really good start,” he recalled, “and over the first few laps, I focussed on trying to keep my tyres in good condition, because with Croft being such an abrasive circuit, we knew they would drop off over the second half of the race. I just had to persevere for a while, but then after a handful of laps we really got going, and I caught and passed a few drivers in front, pulling away afterwards each time.

“It’s so hard to overtake in these cars; you really have to think hard about where and how you are going to do it, line the moves up and carefully plan everything out. I got up to eighth place, but then in the closing stages there was quite a big gap to the pack in front, so I just made sure I brought it safely home in that position.”

With nobody ahead retiring or hitting problems that he might have been able to take advantage of, it was indeed a result achieved entirely on merit – and one that crowned Callum’s best weekend in car racing yet. Making a special point of thanking Antel Motorsport, Brett Parris, Julian Parris, Calum McGregor and Stuart Croft for the key role they all played in that, there is no denying that in recent weeks, the 17-year-old’s improvement has been significant and his progress meteoric.

Having vaulted from 15th in the championship standings pre-Croft to 12th now – tallying the fifth-highest points total over the course of the weekend and impressively outscoring each of the seven drivers immediately above him in the table – the former British Karting Champion is clearly fired-up to keep his momentum going next time out at Thruxton, the most fearsomely fast circuit in the whole of the UK.

“Everything feels like it’s coming together a bit more,” Callum mused in conclusion, “and that’s reflected in the results we’re getting. I feel a lot more comfortable in the car now; we’ve still got a little way to go, but we’ve made massive progress in that respect. We certainly took another step forward at Croft – we’ve done so every time, to be fair – and that’s definitely a good sign.

“Obviously, I’d like to be right up at the front at Thruxton, but the main goal really has to be to just keep on improving. Every time we go out, we’re getting closer-and-closer to the outright pace, and hopefully between now and the end of the season, we might even be able to get a podium. With a good qualifying performance and just a little bit of luck, I don’t think that’s out-of-reach.”

Callum is seeking sponsorship for the remainder of the 2011 campaign; if you are interested in supporting him, please contact Tracey Bowyer on 01733 701099 or 07960 400731, or e-mail: callumkf3@hotmail.com