British racing driver Jack Aitken clinched second place in the 2013 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship in Zandvoort this weekend. This accolade adds to a milestone filled season for Jack who, in only his second year of single-seater racing, was invited to become a member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club ‘Rising Stars’ programme and selected as one of the six finalists for the prestigious ‘McLaren Autosport BRDC Award’ last week.
Despite inclement weather forecast for the entire weekend in The Netherlands, Jack managed to complete a few test laps under extremely difficult conditions on Friday. Both 25-minute practice sessions were hampered by very heavy rain, resulting in numerous Red Flags and greatly shortened track time.
Jack did a remarkable job to qualify fifth in his group on Saturday morning. After all laps had been taken in to consideration from the two-group qualifying process, Jack would start in P9 for races one and two of the three set for the season finale.
It was dry for race one in the afternoon and Jack made a good start from the fifth row on the grid. Caterham backed Matt Parry took fourth position at the finish and with it put his title rivals Jack and third placed Dennis Olsen out of mathematical contention, but still fighting for second place on the Championship table.
After a safety car start to race two due to rain on Sunday morning, Jack soon battled up to P6. Whilst Olsen and Steijn Schothorst fought for fourth place on the last lap, Jack successfully took an overtaking opportunity at turn eight to jump ahead of his position rival and pip him to the chequered flag.
The reverse-grid third race, which would have seen the battling pair of Olsen and Jack line up on the front row, was cancelled due to torrential rain on Sunday afternoon. As a result, and after showing his mettle in truly difficult racing conditions, Jack had secured the second place Drivers’ trophy, with his team, Fortec Motorsports, winning the Teams’ Championship overall.
Jack’s Championship result is all the more creditable since a combination of inexperience and school commitments meant that after the first two rounds he had scored only 41 points and languished in 15th place. However, over the last five rounds he staged a tremendous fight back, scoring more points (189 ) than anyone else in the field, including the eventual winner, Matt Parry.
Jack Aitken comments: “It was a great weekend to end the Championship on. I achieved two decent results from two very difficult races in extreme weather conditions. I am very pleased to have wrapped up second place overall. At the beginning of the year my goal was to challenge Matt Parry throughout the season and I not only accomplished that, but also scored more points than him in the latter half of the year. Competing in Formula Renault NEC with Fortec Motorsports has been a good introduction to European racing. Also competing against some of the Eurocup drivers at a few rounds has been a fantastic experience and given me an indication of where I may like to be racing next year.”
