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An Exciting Week for Henry Surtees

Half-term has brought an exciting week for young driver Henry Surtees. Following on the success in his one off drive in Formula 3 at Donington in the final British Championship race, he was invited for 2 days of testing at Snetterton where he set fastest ever times for the Carlin team in their junior car.

It was then off to the rather cold and changeable weather conditions of Croft for Rounds 1 and 2 of the Renault Winter Series. He put it on pole for Round 1 and 2nd place for Round 2. At the start of the first race he immediately took the lead and opened up a gap with the track wet but drying. As the race went on, and a dry line developed, conserving the tyres became the main preoccupation. He did an excellent job of controlling it from the front, despite coming under challenge from James Calado. Leading up to the second race it looked as if we would have dry conditions until some light rain again started to fall. The team decision was that it was likely to be rather similar to the first race so a setting on the dry side was decided upon. This looked good for the first few laps with Henry making a superb start and passing Calado on the approach to the first corner. The pace was there but then the rain came down with a vengeance and after a few laps of slipping and sliding around James Calado slipped by staying there despite a challenge being mounted by Henry as the rain eased only for a further deluge leaving Henry to settle for second place. All in all not a bad half-term’s work.

It leaves a big question mark as Henry is busy preparing for his A levels and we had previously decided not to do the third and fourth races which take place at Rockingham.