Title Another Step Closer For Conway As Season Hits Half Distance

Formula Renault UK Championship leader Mike Conway has the title firmly in his sights as the season reached its half-way point. The 20-year old driver from Sevenoaks in Kent scored his fourth win of the year at Hampshire circuit Thruxton this weekend and further extended his lead in the points.

Fortec Motorsport racer Conway's Thruxton haul of a second place and a win means he has stretched his lead to a massive 105 points over Westley Barber as the season heads into its second half. Even after dropped scores are taken into account, Conway is still a clear win, or 32 points, ahead of Barber.

The pair of podium finishes were especially satisfying for Conway following a disappointing qualifying session in which he could only manage a fourth and a second place for the weekend's two races.

However, this was down to a problem with Conway's rear tyres the ultra-fast Thruxton speedbowl is notoriously hard on tyres and, during Saturday's qualifying session, Conway's rear tyre exploded, curtailing his participation and limiting him to a handful of flying laps.

Things got much better in the first of Sunday's races. A good start off the line immediately put Conway in the wheeltracks of third-placed Paul di Resta. Conway attacked on lap one but did not get by, so bided his time until picking his moment at the Complex, when he dived past to take third.

A few laps later, Conway was in second, having seen off Alex Storckenfeldt in the same place. After that, he gave chase to leader Barber, but the ComTec Racing driver's three-second lead was too much to close down in the remaining laps, even for the flying Conway. His charge during the latter stages of the race brought him to within two tenths of a second of Barber, and gave him fastest lap too.

"The car was absolutely spot on," explained Conway. "By the end, I was quite close to Westley but ran out of time. After that, I was looking forward to the second race because I knew I was much quicker than Westley. He was lapping a full three tenths slower than me."

At the start of race two, Conway was disappointed with his getaway: "I got on the throttle just a bit too quickly and had to come off it again," explained Conway.

As a result, he lost one place to Barber's team-mate Susie Stoddart and fell to third. However, the Thruxton track was to strike again, this time for race-leader Barber, whose rear tyre blew mid-way through the race, forcing him into another costly retirement.

That allowed Stoddart and Conway to the front of the pack, and Conway once again chose his moment at the Club Chicane to wrest the lead from the lady driver. After that, Conway faced only two minor complications the onset of some light rain on one side of the circuit, and a safety car period late in the race, after which Conway set a new fastest lap.

"It was really difficult to tell what the track surface was going to do because of the rain," said Conway. "It didn't feel too slippery but I didn't want to take any chances so I backed off by about a second per lap, and that seemed fine. It meant Susie closed up on me but I wasn't worried about it because I knew she couldn't get past.

"The safety car coming out was a good thing, because during that period, the rain seemed to stop and the track dried out. Once the safety car went back in, I was able to pull away from Susie again and win pretty comfortably.

"It's all going pretty well at half-distance, but that obviously means there's still a lot to do. We've got a break of several weeks now. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself but I guess I just have to make sure I keep doing what I'm doing when we come back."

The next round of the FRenault UK Championship will be at Croft after a break of nearly two months at the end of July.

Media contact: Andy Bothwell 07944 651166