Will Bratt (Banbury) made it a 100 per cent weekend at North Yorkshire’s Croft circuit with victory in round eight of the 2007 Formula Renault UK with Michelin Championship on Sunday, 3rd June. The Apotex Scorpio Motorsport driver sealed his second lights-to-flag win in as many days to climb to fifth in the drivers’ standings. Fortec Motorsport duo Dean Smith (Wolverhampton) and Riki Christodoulou (Sutton Coldfield) completed the podium with fourth-placed Duncan Tappy (West Ewell) retaining the championship lead by two points ahead of Smith.
Starting from pole position, Bratt made an excellent start to lead Smith into the first corner, Clervaux, for the first time. The second row pairing of Tappy and Riki Christodoulou were side by side, with Christodoulou carrying greater speed through the chicane and passing Tappy for third place on the run to Tower Bend.
Eurotek Motorsport’s Jordan Oakes (Hopton) made up two places on lap one by passing both Mark Burdett Motorsport’s Sho Hanawa (Skegness) and Borthwick Motorsport’s Ryan Borthwick (Hawick) to take 14th place. Hanawa’s team-mate Daniel Ivarsson’s (Skegness) attempt to gain ground saw him run wide and through the gravel before rejoining in 18th.
As the front four cars settled into a rhythm, Manor Competition’s Alexander Sims (Peterborough) led the chasing pack ahead of AKA Cobra’s Adam Christodoulou (Lichfield). AKA’s Jeremy Metcalfe (Fleet) was quickly on the pace and was side by side with Adam Christodoulou at the hairpin on lap two but just unable to find a way past.
Oakes’ good start was undone by a small error at Sunny Out that allowed Borthwick through into 14th and the pair would swap positions twice more until Borthwick ran wide at Clervaux, damaging the rear of his car and forcing him into retirement.
At the head of the field, Bratt was driving a solid race and although unable to open a gap of more than half a second, his lead was not under threat from Smith. Meanwhile, Adam Christodoulou set the fastest lap to that point to pull away from Metcalfe who was coming under pressure from Eucatex’s Adriano Buzaid (Oxford).
On lap six, AKA’s Nathan Caratti (London) spun out of ninth place at Clervaux, but recovered to rejoin in 14th behind Oakes. This promoted Manor’s Kris Loane (Kesh) into ninth with team-mate Richard Singleton (Conwy) close behind. The pair ran in formation until the penultimate lap when Singleton dived through on the inside at the hairpin.
With the top six drivers swapping fastest laps, it was Dean Smith who took the two bonus points for the NGK Laser Platinum Fastest Lap with a time of 1min 19.411s (96.33mph) on lap 10. At the same time, Sims ran slightly wide at Clervaux to allow Adam Christodoulou up to fifth. The AKA driver then made the same mistake on the following lap as Sims regained his position and his best result of a frustrating season so far.
Also on lap 11, Buzaid suffered damage to his rear suspension and was unable to complete the turn at Clervaux, the Brazilian’s race ending in the tyre wall. Meanwhile, Bratt’s lead at the end of lap 12 was just 0.525s – exactly the same as it had been at the end of the first lap showing how evenly matched the leading duo were.
In the closing laps, Riki Christodoulou’s third place came under greater threat from Tappy as the championship leader mounted a final charge but the teenager held on for his third podium finish of the year. Leader Bratt, who did not put a wheel wrong in either of the weekend’s races, also held firm to clinch a double victory.
Commenting on the win, Bratt said: “I guess that’s pretty good! We made some changes from yesterday’s race and maybe we could have got even better pace from the car but we won the race and that’s the main thing. I feel we’ve always had the pace to win races this year and this is the weekend it’s all come together. ”
Second-placed Dean Smith said: “Will was quick this weekend and even if I had got past I don’t think I had much more pace. As it was I couldn’t get close enough to overtake but I’m still pleased to get two more podium finishes and close the gap on Duncan in the championship. ”
Third-placed Riki Christodoulou commented: “I’m very happy to get on the podium after just missing out yesterday. I thought I might pass Duncan at the first corner but he had the inside line so I backed off and waited for my chance on the straight. We’re team-mates and friends so it was a good clean race after that. ”
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