2012 International & Single Seater News News of WRDA members who are competing in the International & Single Seater arenas

Seb still 3rd in title race after another tough weekend.

Driving with the Fortec team, WRDA member Seb was 4th in the first practice session at Croft near Darlington, but only 10th in P2, after the practice session was red flagged before he could set his best times. However he still managed hang on to 3rd place in the points standings despite another bad weekend after contact in the first race of the day forced him out. More contact in race 2 cost Seb another chance of a strong score.

“It’s been a tough weekend but I’ve learnt a lot and that’s what this year is all about. We’ve lost a lot of points, at Thruxton and now at Croft, but we know we’ve got the pace to be back winning next month at Donington. It’s disappointing but sometimes things don’t go your way and that’s what’s happened here.”

Unusually, Seb’s weekend started with a rare crash at the Sunny In, Sunny Out sequence of corners which caused extensive damage, Fortunately
the Fortec mechanics managed to get Seb out for P1 and he was able to post the fourth fastest time in the session.

A red flag affected P2 which ended five minutes early.

At the start of Sunday’s 1st race, Seb held fourth and began to pressurise James Fletcher for third but on lap three he was edged back to fifth by championship rival Scott Malvern. Into the complex, Seb held the outside with Malvern on the inside but both were challenged by Macaulay Walsh and the resulting contact was inevitable.

Seb’s car was lifted onto two wheels and the incident led to significant damage but, even with the entire left-hand bodywork of his car missing, the MSA Academy racer attempted to continue and pocket as many points as possible. On lap seven though, he had no choice but to retire.

With the Fortec team again doing a superb job to repair his car, Seb was determined to end the weekend with a strong result in round nine and an outstanding start and opening lap enabled him to slice his way through the order into sixth from 10th on the grid.

Bottled-up behind Kieran Vernon for the majority of the race, Seb tried everything he could to carve open a clean pass but Vernon held firm – all the while compromising Seb’s pace and leaving him open to attack from the advancing Fletcher who edged ahead on lap 15. Into the last lap Seb was all over the back of Fletcher’s car but a final corner attempt didn’t pay off, instead dropping him to 11th.

“I had a mega start, made up a lot of places and had very good mid-race pace”, explained Seb, “I was challenging [Kieran] Vernon but he was defending incredibly well and I didn’t have a chance to get past. The next thing I know, [James] Fletcher was down the inside and made it through at Tower.

“On the last lap though he was slow out of the second to last corner so I went for a move up the inside into the hairpin but we had some contact. It’s a shame it ended like that, up to then it was a great race and I really enjoyed it.”

Seb will be back on track four weeks from now, over the weekend 18th/19th August, for rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship season.

2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship (after Rd9):

1st Scott Malvern 234 points  2nd Josh Webster 227 pts 3rd Seb Morris, 161pts

Website: www.sebmorris.com
Twitter: @sebmorris31
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sebmorrisracing

 Results from the TSL timing site www.tsl-timing.com

Report Marc Orme & Robert Allender - Photo Jakob Ebrey Photography
Website: www.sebmorris.com
Twitter: @sebmorris31
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sebmorrisracing

Media Contact: Marc Orme at Marc Orme Media & PR on +44 (0)7920 886985, via email to marcorme1@aol.com or through www.marc-orme.co.uk