Stuart Hall (Halstead, Essex) drove a faultless race in the fourth and final round of the 2004 Formula Renault UK Winter Championship with Michelin at Croft Circuit on Saturday to not only take his first ever victory in the category, but also a popular title win.
The 20-year old Fortec Motorsport ace, who led the Winter Championship by one point heading into the Croft weekend, bagged a brace of pole positions during qualifying to give him the best possible opportunity to preserve his series lead.
Victory for Stephen Simpson (Enfield, Middlesex) in the first of the weekend’s two races, however, ensured the tables were turned with the Team JLR driver’s second win in Formula Renault UK giving him a single point advantage over Hall heading into round four.
With the Fortec driver on pole though and Simpson starting from fifth on the grid for the series finale, the balance again swung in Hall’s favour and he didn’t disappoint with a flawless performance to win the title by five points. Hall also knocked another three 10ths of a second of the lap record he set during the day’s third round - the previous best having been set by reigning Formula Renault UK Champion Mike Conway earlier this year.
Speaking on his Winter Championship triumph, Hall said: “It’s absolutely fantastic to win the title and I’m delighted for everyone, especially my dad and the whole Fortec team. It was frustrating to not win at Pembrey and then I screwed up my start in the first race here so I put myself under a lot of pressure going into the last round.
“In the second race I drove every lap like I was on a qualifier as I wanted to win the race and the championship, which we did. This is great for us ahead of next season and the focus now will be to get some good winter testing behind us before making a realistic challenge for the regular championship with Fortec in 2005.”
At the start of round three, Simpson made the best of starts from third on the grid to pass Manor Motorsport’s Patrick Hogan (Killiney, Co. Dublin) while pole-sitter Hall faltered with too much wheel-spin. On lap two, Simpson led Hogan by just three 10ths of a second with Hall third, and Manor’s Oliver Jarvis (Burwell, Cambridgeshire) fourth.
While Hogan pressed Simpson at the front and Hall, in turn, began to reel in the Irishman with some very quick laps, on lap five Team JLR’s Craig Dolby (Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire) went off the circuit from fifth position meaning Fortec’s Yelmer Buurman was promoted from sixth place.
Hogan continued his relentless pursuit of Simpson but to no avail as the JLR driver took his second Formula Renault UK victory by 0.309 seconds from Hogan in second, Hall in third and Dutchman Buurman in fourth position – the latter having demoted Jarvis to fifth position at the end of lap 11.
Round four saw Buurman, Hogan and Simpson start well but it was Hall who managed to hold the lead from pole position as the field headed through Clervaux for the first time with the race order seeing Hogan assume second position from Simpson in third and Buurman in fourth place.
On lap two Mark Burdett Motorsport’s Chris Dent (Merryoaks, Durham) was forced into the pits with gearbox problems, a sour end to what had begun as a promising weekend during the official test sessions on Thursday and Friday, while out on track Buurman moved ahead of Simpson into third position.
At the front, Hall continued to drive an immaculate race while team-mate Buurman started to close in on Hogan as he set the fastest lap of the race on lap three and then went quicker still on lap four.
Hall then bettered Buurman’s time on lap six before going faster on lap seven and breaking his own lap record from round three. The Clio Renaultsport V6 255 Safety Car was deployed on lap nine after Dolby spun out of the race almost two laps previously so the pack was bunched up ready for a final sprint when the re-start came on lap 12.
Race leader Hall made the perfect getaway after the Safety Car returned to the pits and at the end of lap 12 he held a 0.8 second advantage over Hogan with Buurman pushing hard in third place. Hall was immediately on lap record pace, emulating the kind of performance so regularly produced by former team-mate Mike Conway during the 2004 main season.
Through the closing stages Hall continued to push and on lap 14 set a new race record of 1m 17.719 seconds (98.52mph), the cold, dry conditions conducive to quick times. On lap 17, Hogan, Buurman and Simpson were all very close with the Dutchman passing Hogan at Tower Bend and the pair running side by side towards Barcroft.
Buurman, however, took to the grass in his efforts to stay ahead of Hogan and as the pair squabbled over position, Simpson darted through to take second place with Hogan recovering from his coming together with Buurman, who retired from the race, to take third.
Hall’s eventual winning margin from Simpson was over five seconds with Hogan 1.2 seconds adrift of the JLR driver for the final podium place. Jarvis finished in fourth position with Team aka’s Peruvian driver Juan Manuel Polar fifth and team-mate James Jakes (Cullingworth, West Yorkshire) sixth – a great performance from the 17-year old after he was forced to start from the back of the grid.
Championship runner-up Stephen Simpson commented: “It was fantastic to win the first race this weekend and it put us in a very good position ahead of the final race but starting from fifth on the grid it was always going to be a very tall order. It’s been a successful campaign for everyone at Team JLR who gave me a great car with the chance to fight for wins.
“Next year we hope to be back in Formula Renault UK and this championship has been good preparation for that. Now we have to work hard during the winter to try and raise the budget but hopefully we’ll be back challenging at the front next season.”
Reflecting on a well deserved double-podium at Croft, Patrick Hogan said: “I’m happy to have been on the podium twice this weekend but overall I don’t think the race results have really done us justice. We had quite a poor weekend at Pembrey but we did make up for it at Croft and I want to thank everyone at Manor for doing such a fantastic job with my car.”
Formula Renault UK Winter Championship with Michelin Points (Provisional):
1st Stuart Hall, 119pts; 2nd Stephen Simpson, 114pts; 3rd Oliver Jarvis, 99pts;
4th Patrick Hogan, 87pts; 5th Yelmer Buurman, 71pts; 6th James Jakes, 64pts
For all the latest Formula Renault UK Winter Championship with Michelin news visit the official Renault Sport UK website www.renaultsport.co.uk built by Raccar
