ON TRACK WITH HENRY SURTEES
2007 UK Formula BMW Championship
First single seater car win for Henry at Donington Park
by John Surtees
12 to 15 July 2007
 Donington Park was the venue for rounds 11 and 12 of the FBMW 2007 Championship, the Series passed its half-way point last time out at a rain soaked Oulton Park and conditions did not improve at Donington.
Henry after the disappointments of Round 10 where the feelings were that he was cheated of the opportunity of closing the gap on Fortec drivers Ericsson and Arundel by the driving of Williams and Arundel was keen to back-up the strong performance he had shown in pre-season testing with podium performances.
Thursday 12 July
Despite the threatening clouds the first practice session stayed dry. The formalities of engine checks after an engine change and bedding brakes, together with red flags didn’t allow Henry to get up to pace and he recorded 6th fastest time. In the afternoon came rain and Henry posted fastest time without any undue pressure.
There was a day’s break because of Donington’s noise restriction before qualifying on Saturday.
;Saturday 14 July
Two qualifying sessions were scheduled. The weather was cloudy but bright with very strong gusts of wind. Henry was 3rd fastest and fastest rookie with a time of 1.11.381 just one thousandth of a second behind Championship 2nd place man Henry Arundel – this placed Henry on the second row of the grid for round 11 of the Championship.
The track was dry for the qualifying session of round 12 but the clouds were threatening so no time for stops and changes. Henry was 2nd fastest in section one and fastest in section three but didn’t like the handling in one part of section two losing considerable time and placing him lowly down the grid for him in place 7 on the 4th row. But the data showed up clearly the problem so Henry and the team looked forward to the races with confidence.
Sunday 15 July: Championship Race Round 11
The weather had changed dramatically from the previous day as it was cold and wet with very heavy rain. The race was postponed for 4 hours due to the bad track conditions. The car was set with a full rain setting to cope with the running water that was said to be on the track. But as the race was finally called the rain stopped and the track started to drain. Henry didn’t show his customary speed in the wet but still maintained 3rd position close to 2nd place man Arundel for several laps and keeping Ericsson at bay until lap 7. An off at Redgate lost him 2 places and with the car becoming more difficult to drive, with excessive oversteer, as the track started to dry he lost a further place to Kral so dropping back to finishing in 6th place. Not quite what we had hoped, but a good drive in difficult circumstances.
Championship race Round 12
Watching the Porsche and Renault races showed that the track was drying on the racing line. So it was back to dry settings with some adjustments to counteract the problem experienced on Thursday and slick tyres. The start of the race was delayed until 6.15pm after two attempts bringing pressure on the teams and particularly of course on the young drivers. Waiting in the assembly area everyone’s eyes were set on the sky. What would it do? The odd spot of rain that came suggested we would be lucky if this was a dry race and that the lads would no doubt have to demonstrate their skills of driving on a damp or wet  Donington circuit on slicks. Henry took his place on the grid in 7th position. His start was not good and he lost one place on the dive into the first corner coming by on the first lap in 8th position. But Henry was on a mission, by lap 2 he had jumped to 5th place with very close racing for the first 5 places. On lap 4 to 4thand on lap 5 to 3rd passing Ericsson and Kral in the process pulling away from the chasing pack and gaining on 2nd place man Arundel. On lap 8 Henry passed Arundel on the inside of McLeans and was gaining ground on Legris the leader. Henry prepared his challenge for the lead and overtook Legris on Redgate to take the lead and pull away to give him his first Championship win. It was a magnificent drive in very difficult conditions as those few spots of rain had steadily increased as the laps went on creating extremely difficult driving conditions and giving Henry a well earned first Championship win in his first year of single seaters.
Championship Placings:
1st Marcus Ericsson
2nd Henry Arundel
3rd Josef Kral
4th Henry Surtees
Henry was also awarded the Muriel Tomlinson Trophy, a special Donington trophy created in 1999 for the highest points score of the two events, and won last year by Oliver Turvey.
20 to 22 July: Nürburgring
Next weekend Henry has been invited to take part in the Formula BMW German Championship event at The Nürburgring which is part of the Formula One European Grand Prix programme driving with the Mucke Motorsport team. Following the success at Donington Henry is looking forward to taking part in this prestige event.
Rounds 13 & 14 of the Championship will be held at Snetterton on 28 & 29 July.
Photographs available from www.jakobebrey.com/henrysurtees
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