Having ably demonstrated his mettle by competing againstand defeatingsome of the very finest karters the world over in recent years, Ash Hand has taken the plunge in 2013 and is set to make his car racing debut with defending champions Team Pyro in the fiercely-contested Renault UK Clio Cup.
A title-winner in 2010 in the same championship as first catapulted a certain Lewis Hamilton into the spotlightFormula Kart StarsHands two subsequent seasons at Senior level in 2011 and 2012 yielded continued success, with triumphs in the prestigious Kartmasters and O Plate outings and podium finishes in the British Super 1 Series and Euro Rotax Winter Cup. It was, he acknowledges, time for a new challenge.
We started thinking seriously about moving up into cars towards the end of last year, revealed the talented Nuneaton-based speed demon. My last karting race during the Rotax International Open meeting at Zuera in Spain (in which he finished second in the pre-final) felt like a natural conclusion to that stage of my careerI had nothing more to learn or prove in karts.
I knew I wanted to go down the touring car routeand that being the case, Clios seemed like the obvious choice. The racing is closer and more spectacular in tin-tops than in single-seatersand Ive always had a reputation as quite a good overtaker, too!
Indeed, it was perhaps inevitable that Hand would one day set foot on the touring car ladder, given that he was introduced to motorsport in the first place by Wayne Green, cousin of established tin-top ace Jamie Greena multiple race-winner in the pan-European DTM series and a man who similarly offered the highly-rated Maple Park hotshot the benefit of his experience as he learnt the ropes. Now, his young protg is bidding to follow in his illustrious wheeltracksand initial testing with Team Pyro has got off to a positive start.
It was immediately a massive change from anything I had ever known before, confessed Hand, who is backed by both Sigma and QTS. Its a tremendous step-up and Ive got a big learning curve ahead of meits a completely new ballgame. The Clio Renaultsport 200 is front wheel-drive and you cant throw it around in the same way you would a kartit just handles so totally differently. Im finding myself having to continuously adapt my driving style, but I know that the more comfortable I feel in the car, the more the lap times will fall...
Pyro has a superb record in the championship. Theyre clearly a front-running outfitthey won the title last yearand they came highly recommended. Im settling in really well and I feel like weve already established a strong bond. The communication is always open, honest and two-way, and thats a promising start. Better still, there will be a lot of fast drivers in the awning, and its important to me to have quick team-mates to compare data and feedback with, spur me on and generally just push the whole team forward.
Im not treating this as a learning year as such, but equally, Im under absolutely no illusions as to just how tough it is going to bethe calibre of drivers in the field is extremely high. The strength-in-depth of the UK Clio Cup should never be underestimated. Weve got a lot of pre-season track time planned, though, and I would like to be there-or-thereabouts by the first round. I dont think you can go into a championship like this with any other mentality.
The Renault UK Clio Cup acts as a support series to the high-profile Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), and benefits accordingly from live television coverage on ITV4. Although that in itself engenders extra pressure, Hand is sure he will be able to deal with it in his strideand having followed his progress throughout karting and supervised his early testing programme, Pyro team manager Mark Hunt agrees that the 18-year-old is unlikely to be fazed by the task that lies ahead.
One of the main things that attracted us to Ash was his evident pedigree in karting, and the fact that he seems very serious about wanting to establish a successful career in the sportits not just a hobby for him, underlined Hunt. Hes got a lot of spirit and fight inside him and seems very determinedwhatever he is given, he will do the best he can with it. His enthusiasm is refreshing. First impressions have been extremely positive.
Testing has been disrupted a little by the weather so far and weve lost two of our scheduled days, but still, Ashs understanding of the car has jumped forward in leaps-and-bounds. Its very easy for drivers stepping up from karts to be caught out by the weight transfer, but he listens well and he has been progressing at the right ratehe isnt trying to run before he can walkwhich is really encouraging.
We have been keeping a close eye on his lap times as he increasingly gets to grips with the car, and Ash has never been more than six or seven tenths away from the leading pace, which at this early stage is pretty impressiveespecially as theres a lot more testing to come between now and the start of the season, by which time he should have driven all of the circuits we will be racing at this year.
He has the self-confidencewhich is importantand his car control is excellent, particularly in the high-speed stuff; it has been from his very first test, so bravery clearly isnt an issue! Ash has his own expectationshe is a racing driver and he wants to winbut this isnt an easy championship by any stretch of the imagination, so as long as he keeps on improving all the way through the season, it will be a good year.
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