Hwyel spins and then wins at Brands to maintain title challenge
2007 International & Single Seater News Richard Singleton Winter Winner 3 .jpg (738908 bytes)

Hwyel spins and then wins at Brands to maintain title challenge

Hwyel leads into Druids Hill Bend.jpg (847529 bytes)Race 1 woes

Hwyel Lloyd endured the Highs & Lows of motor racing in an action packed Bank Holiday weekend at Brand Hatch in the latest rounds of the 2007 BARC Formula Renault Championship. In practice for Sundays race, Hwyel showed he was not affected by the disappointments of the last round at Snetterton by bouncing back to take pole position, and another vital point, with his main rival Dean Stoneman in 5th place. However things started to go wrong for Hywel on the green flag lap as his car spun off into the barriers, damaging the nose cone! Hwyel admitted "It was my own stupid mistake, I was trying to warm up my tyres and overdid it!" Fortunately he managed to get going again to start the race, and then was thrown a lifeline, when the race was red-flagged after an accident. "Luckily I was on the lead lap and we managed to get the nose fixed, but I had to take the restart from dead last" To make things worse his main rival was now starting in 3rd place, but Hwyel, despite starting in 26th place, tore through the pack to finish in the points in 10th place, a considerable achievement on the tight Brands Hatch Indy circuit, also scoring another vital point for fastest lap on the way! At the front Dean Stoneman was beaten into 2nd place by Rossi so at least the damage was limited.

 

Race 2 -back to winning ways

 

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Hwyel leads race 2 into Paddock Hill bend and then collects the laurels

In practice for race 2 on Monday, Hwyel showed he was back to form, taking 2nd place on the grid and then storming into the lead, leaving Stoneman back in 5th place. Despite two red flags stoppages, Hwyel was able to repeat his perfect start each time to dominate the race to the end, taking his 4th win of the year. In the meantime Dean Stoneman profited from a late race crash which gifted him 3rd place, giving him a 13 point lead in the championship with 2 races still to go. However Hwyel remains positive. "Its a big gap but I feel confident it’s do-able. We have the car to do it and I am good at Thruxton, and with Oulton Park quite near home, I’ll be testing ready for the final rounds. I just going to score as many points as I can and see what happens"

The final rounds are at Thruxton on 16th September and at Oulton Park on 29th September

2007 Formula Renault BARC Championship Points after 10 of 12 rounds

Dean Stoneman

114 Points

Hwyel Lloyd

101 Points

Results and times from http://www.msttiming.com