WORK TO DO FOR METCALFE & AKA COBRA AT BRANDS

Brands Hatch race winner Jeremy Metcalfe is hoping to repeat his success from the opening round of the Formula Renault UK season during this weekend’s 15th and 16th rounds of the championship at the Kent venue, but the AKA Cobra driver knows there is plenty of work to do after a difficult pre-event test today.

Although just 0.292 seconds shy of the outright pace and less than a 10th of a second outside the top six, Jeremy’s best lap of the day of 44.639 seconds (96.66mph) saw him conclude the test in 11th position on combined times and so he is hoping for a much more competitive showing when qualifying gets underway tomorrow morning.

During the first of today’s two 45-minute test sessions, the Fleet 19-year-old produced a best time of 44.802 seconds (96.31mph) which he then bettered by just under a couple of 10ths of a second this afternoon.

With very little to choose between the drivers on the tight and twisty 1.2-mile Indy Circuit, good car set-up will be crucial to achieving an all-important grid slot on the first two rows during round 15 and 16 qualifying and although disappointed with today’s outing, Jeremy remains positive ahead of his return to the track on Saturday morning.

“Today hasn’t seen the results we were hoping for in terms of pace but hopefully we’ll be able to make some changes and be stronger in qualifying tomorrow”, said Jeremy, “Two podiums is what I want from the weekend but we’ll have to see how things go during qualifying before we can gauge exactly where we are.”

Hosting the first two races of the season at the start of April, Brands Hatch holds good memories for Jeremy who made a great start to his 2007 campaign with pole position and a subsequent race victory in round one.

He went on to win the 10th round at Oulton Park and has also taken two further podium finishes, all high points from a season which has seen Jeremy shackled with more than his fair share of bad luck.

Qualifying for round 15 of the Formula Renault UK season is scheduled to take place at 09.00 tomorrow, Saturday, 18th August, with the round 16 session expected to follow at approximately 14.25. Both races will be held on Sunday, 19th August, with round 15 set to begin at 10.00 and round 16 timetabled to get underway at 17.00.