Five wins from five races for Clark at Croft

Runaway Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship leader Kieren Clark (Royston) continued his stunning momentum at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire over the weekend, 11th/12th July, with two flawless race victories during rounds four and five of the 2009 campaign.

Increasing his advantage in the driver standings to a huge 50 points over nearest challenger Hillspeed’s Ahmad Al Harthy (Derby), 20-year-old Clark sealed a thoroughly perfect weekend with a brace of pole positions, the fastest lap in each encounter and, of course, his pair of wins. Continuing his 100 per cent record, the Apotex Scorpio Motorsport racer has also taken maximum points from the first three meetings.

“All five wins, all five fastest laps, all five poles – I’m happy with that!” said Clark after his dominant weekend’s work. “I didn’t come away with the lap record which is a bit of a shame but the championship is the important thing. The guys at Scorpio have done a brilliant job once again.”

During qualifying on Saturday, 11th July, Clark started the weekend the way he intended to go on with an unbeatable performance. Lapping with a best time of 1m 20.690 seconds (94.80mph) in sunny conditions to secure his fourth pole position on the trot for round four, the Apotex Scorpio racer did it again in the round five session with a superb lap of 1m 20.796 seconds (94.68mph).

Before the opening 14-lap encounter had even begun on Sunday, 12th July, two of the 18 starters had already fallen out of contention with Tempus Sport’s Callum Holland (Quainton)ruled out on the sighting lap and Apex Engineering’s Jordi Weckx (Southampton) retiring on the formation lap with a fuel-pump issue.

With the very real threat of rain in the air as the drivers assumed grid positions, and the track slippery in places due to earlier showers, Clark made a good getaway to lead Al Harthy into Clervaux with Alpine Motorsport’s Josh Mulholland (Randalstown) holding third off the line ahead of Antel Motorsport’s Brett Parris (Southampton), the latter squeezing by Apotex Scorpio Motorsport’s Joe Crook (Hailsham) at the first corner.

Further behind, sixth and seventh place starters Hillspeed’s James Theodore (Telford) and Tempus Sport’s Sasha Radola – the Croatian making his Protyre Formula Renault BARC debut this weekend, having raced up to now in the sister Michelin Formula Renault UK Championship – made contact off the grid which pitched Theodore into a huge spin on the infield and also resulted in Radola slipping back to eighth.

Luckily incurring no damage to his Hillspeed-entered car, Theodore managed to rejoin but by the start of lap two he was some 20 seconds behind the leaders. Back at the front, Clark set about another faultless drive to secure his fourth win on the bounce. He also added two bonus points for the fastest lap of the race, a time of 1m 21.455 seconds (93.91mph).

Al Harthy ran largely unchallenged in second place for the duration as well, the Omani racer securing a career best finish which helped him move into a clear second in the standings. Furthermore, he was one of just three drivers to lap under the 1m 22 second barrier.

The battle for the remainder of the top six provided good entertainment throughout. At the end of lap one, Parris moved into third past Mulholland’s car with Crook fifth and Dino Zamparelli (Bristol) sixth at the wheel of his Reon Motorsport entry. Seventh position was held by Tempus’ Don De Graaff (Weybridge) ahead of team-mate Radola.

Into the Sunny In and Sunny Out sequence of right-hand corners on lap two, Zamparelli was right on the tail of Crook and at the complex he managed to get ahead into fifth place before De Graaff then made the most of the battle ahead of him and passed both cars with an impressive piece of driving to emerge inside the top five.

By lap seven, Mulholland had closed on third placed Parris and the Northern Irishman mounted a successful challenge for the final podium place at the hairpin on the following tour when Parris ran wide. De Graaff, continuing to enjoy a terrific run, followed Mulholland through to grab fourth place and from that point on the top five remained very close but unchanged nonetheless.

Sixth position went the way of Crook who, on lap eight, grabbed the place from Zamparelli at the exit of Tower Bend when the latter had been sizing up a move of his own on Parris. Unfortunately for Zamparelli, ever-worsening understeer led to a spin on lap 11 which forced his retirement. Radola ended the race in seventh ahead of Team Avago’s David Sutton (Swinton) in a career best eighth place.

Theodore, meanwhile, produced a superb recovery from his lap one incident to bag an excellent ninth place and in doing so he also set the second fastest lap of the race. Just behind, Steven Durrant (Oxford) rounded out the top 10 to take a clear win in the Privateer Cup class.

Round five was a less action-packed affair but the result at the front was the same with Clark’s fifth dominant victory from as many race starts. This time, however, he was joined on the podium by the flying Zamparelli, who equalled his career best finish in single-seaters with second place, and series newcomer Radola, who claimed his maiden Formula Renault podium with a good drive to third.

While Clark raced into the distance to a 10 second winning margin – and more bonus points for a fastest lap of 1m 21.462 seconds (93.91mph) – behind it was Zamparelli who provided the lion’s share of the overtaking as he climbed from sixth on the grid. At the start, the Reon driver was up to fourth at Clervaux after passing both Al Harthy and Theodore around the outside.

Pressuring third placed Radola almost instantly, Zamparelli then grabbed the position at Sunny on lap three before slicing past Mulholland for second at Clervaux on the sixth tour. Radola then moved back into the top three at the expense of Mulholland at the end of the very same lap at the hairpin.

The top four ran unchanged to the chequered flag while just 0.467 seconds behind Mulholland was Al Harthy in fifth who headed home a train of four very evenly matched performers in the shape of Theodore, Parris, Crook and De Graaff. Kourosh Khani (London), who was a round four retirement, completed the top 10 for Welch Motorsport while Andrew Jarman (Northampton) took Privateer honours in 14th place overall.

Commenting on his best ever Formula Renault BARC finish from round four, Al Harthy said: “It felt really good, the car was great. I controlled my race, I managed to push really, really hard in the opening laps as I knew that was key so I could relax a little more later on. Kieren Clark is really on another level at the moment so there was no point risking anything.”

Podium debutant Radola added: “It’s my first weekend in Formula Renault BARC so to be on the podium in the second race, I am very happy!”

There is now a four-week break in the 2009 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship calendar with rounds six and seven of the season taking place at Donington Park in the East Midlands over the weekend 8th/9th August.