Clark continues perfect start to Protyre BARC series

Apotex Scorpio Motorsport’s Kieren Clark (Royston) produced a thoroughly faultless performance at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend, 27th/28th June, to seal his second and third victories of the 2009 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship.

Making it a hat-trick of wins from the opening three races of the year, the 20-year-old kept up his sheer domination of the category by also recording a brace of pole position starts and setting the fastest lap in each encounter. Added to that, Clark bagged a new lap record with a time of 1m 08.463 seconds (102.64mph average) and now heads the championship by a huge 30-point margin.

In qualifying at the 1.95-mile track on Saturday, 27th June, Clark got his weekend off to a superb start with a round two pole position time of 1m 07.750 seconds (103.72mph average), more than three 10ths of a second faster than nearest rival Don De Graaff (Weybridge) – the Tempus Sport racer producing by far his best ever effort just 0.070 seconds quicker than Hillspeed’s Ahmad Al Harthy (Derby).

Clark was pushed harder in the round three session by Antel Motorsport’s Brett Parris (Southampton), the latter just 0.097 seconds slower. In the Privateer Cup qualifying battle, Steven Durrant (Oxford) outpaced Andrew Jarman (Northampton) in the round two period but the outcome was reversed in round three qualifying.

Snetterton basked under incredibly hot sunshine on raceday, Sunday, 28th June, and at the beginning of round two Clark just managed to hold off a fast-starting De Graaff on the run to Riches Corner with Al Harthy third ahead of Reon Motorsport’s Dino Zamparelli (Bristol). Into the Esses though, Al Harthy produced a great pass on De Graaff to wrest away second position.

Further down the order at Sear, Privateer runner Alex Craven (London) and Hillspeed’s Ellis Harkins (Barry, Vale of Glamorgan) made contact resulting in the Safety Car being deployed for three laps.

On lap five, racing resumed with Clark making no mistakes at the front and he was able to gradually pull away from his pursuers as they battled over the remaining steps on the podium. With the outing extended to 17 laps due to the Safety Car intervention, Clark took the chequered flag almost nine seconds clear to firmly stamp his authority on the title race.

Al Harthy, suffering all weekend from illness, had to fight hard to keep third-placed De Graaff at bay and he almost managed it but on the final tour, the Tempus youngster shot up the inside into the Esses after getting an ideal run out of Sear. Al Harthy then came under attack from Parris and as they crossed the finishing line side-by-side, just 0.001 seconds separated the pair in Al Harthy’s favour.

Alpine Motorsport’s Josh Mulholland (Randalstown) produced a fantastic effort to climb from 10th on the grid into fifth position at the finish, his best result of the season – but even better was to come.

The best battle of the race was undoubtedly the titanic tussle over sixth position which was eventually won by Welch Motorsport’s Kenny Andrews (Spalding), just six 10ths of a second ahead of Tempus’ Callum Holland (Quainton) who, in turn, shaded Hillspeed’s James Theodore (Telford) by a mere 0.294 seconds. Durrant, in ninth place overall, took a comfortable Privateer Cup class win with Jordi Weckx (Southampton) in 10th spot.

Zamparelli’s podium challenge was ended on lap 14 when a suspension failure forced him to drop down the order dramatically. The first-year single-seater racer did continue circulating though and managed to grab 15th place, the points for which could be crucial later in the season.

Looking back on round two, race winner Clark said: “By no means was it easy. I got a little bit bogged down at the start and Don [De Graaff] was straight on me so I had to defend. The guys behind then started to battle each other and that allowed me to get away. The car was absolutely perfect, Apotex Scorpio did an amazing job as usual.”

Debut podium finisher De Graaff commented: “It was close the whole way but I couldn’t quite get near enough to Ahmad [Al Harthy] to get the move done. On the last lap I got a good run off Sear, went to the inside into the Esses and Ahmad just gave me enough room so credit to him for that.”

Ahead of round three, light rain did begin to fall but the clouds thankfully moved away a couple of laps into the race. Clark again ran unchallenged to the chequered flag and by posting the fastest lap in both outings, he left Snetterton with a maximum 102-point total in the championship.

During the early stages, Parris held second ahead of Al Harthy with Mulholland fourth and Andrews and Zamparelli commencing with a battle royal over fifth position. On lap five though, the race fell under Safety Car conditions after a five-car midfield tangle at the Esses resulted in a blocked track.

Lead Privateer Cup contenders Durrant and Jarman were both taken out of action in the incident along with Weckx, Welch Motorsport’s Kourosh Khani (London) and Formula Renault BARC newcomer Alexander Jeffrey (Torphicen). The Scottish karting graduate did have better fortune in the first race though with a solid 12th place.

The re-start came on lap nine and although Parris closed on the tail of Clark as they headed for Riches, the leader dealt with the attention well and then cruised to a winning margin of four seconds. Parris took a welcome second place while, behind, the ever-improving Mulholland produced a terrific pass on Al Harthy at the Bomb Hole on the last lap to grab his maiden podium.

Lap after lap, Andrews and Zamparelli provided tremendous entertainment and in the end it was the Reon driver who came out on top to take fifth place after getting past Andrews on lap 14, just before the latter was unfortunately forced to retire. Sixth place was contested between Theodore, De Graaff and Holland with the former emerging at the head of the scrap.

Reflecting on the performance which brought him a maiden podium, Mulholland said: “I forced Ahmad into a bit of an error under braking and he went a bit wide so I managed to get alongside at the Bomb Hole and then get past. It’s only my first season but I’m improving every time out and to get my first podium is great. We’re getting closer and closer to where we want to be.”

Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire will host rounds four and five of the 2009 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship two weeks from now over the weekend 11th/12th July.