2008 Single Seater & International News

Meyrick, Lloyd, Singleton, Morgan, Davies, & James all ready for action

Andy Meyrick whose parents come from Swansea, is the driver setting the pace in pre-season testing for the 2008 British Formula Championship. Andy who is driving a Dallara Honda in National Class run by Carlin Motorsport, one of the top teams in F3, confirmed "The Pembrey and Snetterton test went really well. At Snetterton I was fastest overall in the first session, and I have been getting really close to the Class A cars most of the time, as well as being quickest in my own Class. Our first race is at Oulton Park on March 24^th and I was fastest in my class during testing there before, but as it’s a high down-force circuit with medium and slow corners it will be difficult to catch the Class A cars there.’ Andy is obviously warming to his task, and looks favourite to be the first Welsh driver break the long F3 drought, it being almost 35 years since the legendary Tom Pryce won the 1974 Monaco F3 race that propelled him to Grand Prix stardom. Andy will be joined in the National Class by Hywel Lloyd who was awarded the WRDA Young Driver of the Year for his efforts.

Hwyel will also be driving a Dallara Honda, but run by his own families CF Racing Team, and has been within half a second of Andys pace setting times, despite having only had 6 weeks to build and test his car. Hywel said "Realistically we hope to be challenging for the podium once we start to get familiar with the car. We concentrated on doing some longs runs in the last test, as we needed to find how to balance the car over the longer race distances"

New for 2008 races in the British Formula Championship will be 30 minutes long, testing the stamina as well as the skill of the drivers, and with 2 races in a weekend and races at Spa, Monza and Bucharest, the 2008 championship will be a major challenge, starting on Easter Monday at Oulton Park and continues 27 April at Croft, May 18 Monza, (I) May 25th Rockingham, June 8^th Snetterton, June 29^th Thruxton, July 13^th Brands Hatch, August 1^st /2^nd Spa-Francorchamps (B), August 16th Silverstone (GB), August 23/24^th Bucharest (R) October 12^th Donington Park

Meanwhile Richard Singleton will contest the European Formula Renault Eurocup Championship, with the Hitech Junior Team. Richard was BARC Formula Renault Champion in 2006 and was planning to contest the UK Championship again when he was approached by Hitech, who have a good track record in Formula 3. Paul, his Dad, said  "They wanted Richard as their team leader for their new Junior team, after watching him put in a good performance in last years Winter Series". Richard said "It was an offer we couldn’t refuse as Hitech will be giving me lots of help and support with things like nutrion and training and we will be visiting lots of circuits used by GP2 and Formula One so that will nice experience too" Richard has already done several tests with the Silverstone-based team and has impressed them with his driving earning the nickname ‘Steely’* after showing steel like determination to extract the maximum from the car in qualifying. (*actually according to Paul it isnt that, but thats all we can say on a family website)  For their part Hitech are hoping Richard can help the other Hitech drivers find their feet in what must be the most intensely competitive series in the world, with young drivers from America, Australia and Europe all looking to make their mark. See Richard Singletons'  Euro Renault campaigns

• Alex Morgan from Bridgend will also be contesting the Formula Renault Eurocup Championship but with Fortec Racing. Alex who was 9^th in the UK Formula Renault Championship last year, said "I cant wait. It will be a nice experience, but there will be a lot of drivers on the grid. Almost 60 drivers have registered for the championship, but only the top 32 will race. The fastest 20 will have a qualifying shoot out for the grid and the rest of the drivers will have to race for the remaining 12 places." There were suggestions that he would continue in the UK Championship, but Alex who is studying Chemistry and Biology at Birmingham University, confirmed the Euro series has turned out to be the better option. "I am due to take my finals this year and the races are spaced out enough not to interfere with my exams" See  Alex Morgans Euro Renault campaign

The Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship at Spa in Belgium on 2 May. May 2-4 Spa-Francorchamps (B), June 6-8 Silverstone (GB), July 4-6 Hungaroring (H), August 29-31 N�rburgring (D), September 5-7 Le Mans (F), September 26-28 Estoril (P) and October 17-19 Catalunya (S).