Singleton clinches championship at Brands Hatch

WRDA member Richard Singleton from Llanfairfechan clinched the 2006 BARC Renault Championship with a sparkling display of driving on the tight and twisty Brands Hatch Indy Circuit.

Singleton started the weekend with a handy points lead over Jordan Oakes, the only driver who could overtake him, but immediately stamped his authority by clinching pole position for the first of the weekends 2 races, with a time of 46.257 seconds, almost ½ a second quicker than Oakes could manage! In the second of the 2 practice sessions Oakes was closer but Singleton was still fastest taking Pole Position again, no mean feat considering the nature of the track and the massive 28 car entry.

With the final races of the season as part of the prestigious British Touring Car Championship with a big crowd of spectators and Britains top team bosses looking on and the two championship rivals 1^st and 2^nd on the grid the pressure was on both drivers to make a good start. However at the start of the first race on Saturday, when the lights changed, Singleton timed his start to perfection and went straight into a lead which he held throughout the 20 lap race, extending his lead to finish over 7 seconds ahead of the 2^nd place man. In contrast Oakes got bogged down and failed to mount a challenge to the disappearing Singleton, eventually finishing out of the points in 16^th place, almost 30 seconds behind Singleton and in some danger of being lapped!

Indeed the pressure seemed to have become so much for Oakes that he failed to appear for the final race.

By now Singletons dominance was so total that, having already scored enough points to win the title in race one, he also won the second race in the same manner even taking the extra points on offer for fastest lap. Singleton punched the air as he crossed the finish line, wrapping up the title in style and becoming the youngest ever Welshman to win a major single-seater title (and only the 4^th in 40 years). With title in his pocket the team launched into celebrations with his father Paul describing his feeling as "Ecstatic. We couldn’t have asked for more. To have taken 2 poles and 2 race wins to wrap up the championship, it doesn’t get any better." Richard commented "I feel great, I’m on a roll and I wont to keep it going."