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29th April
- Pearson recovers from poor start to claim second win
Ian came from
behind to win round two of the Club Class category of the Formula
Renault BARC championship at Snetterton on Saturday, 29th April.
Having cruised to victory in round one at Silverstone, the defending
Champion added a second victory but was made to work harder
for the win following a difficult start.
Ian qualified
in his Tatuus RC98 Renault in 16th overall behind a hoard of
the faster FR2000 championship class cars, just two places ahead
of his nearest rival Mark Terry. However, disaster struck for
Pearson immediately as Mark Burdett Motorsport's Pierre Renom
stalled on the grid directly in fron of him. As he took evasive
action, both Terry and FR2000 Class driver Michael Vitulli were
able to pass before the first corner. But Ian recovered his
composure to settle in behind Terry and was immediately able
to challenge for the class lead but the Kent man made his Tatuus
RC98/99 Renault as wide as possible to prevent Pearson from
overtaking.
The resistance
only lasted for three laps however, as Ian made a better exit
from the last chicane onto the start/finish straight allowing
him to get alongside Terry and pass him into the first corner
at the star of the fourth lap for the Class lead. He then set
about chasing the more modern carbon-fibre FR2000 Class cards
and although was unable to make up the ground, he eased away
from Terry for a comfortable win. Muzz Race's Simon Keast rounded
out the top three.
Commenting on
the start, Ian said "It was quite a chaotic start because
Pierre stalled directly in front of me so I had to come off
the throttle to get round him and then there was another car
stuck on the grid a bit further up, it was messy. My main focus
was on getting through the congestion and making sure the car
was in one piece to continue the race."
"Once I
came through I was then able to reel in Mark and pass him. Then
it was just a case of keeping out of trouble and trying to catch
the bunch of FR2000 cars in front of me. I'm quite happy, the
car seems to be working well and I'm confident I can keep winning
races this season."
Ian added one
bonus point each for claiming pole position and the fastest
lap to take 17 points from the race. He now leads the Club Class
standings by 12 points from Terry, with Simon Keast moving up
to third. Ian's dad, Bob, finished fourth in the race and is
one point behind Keast in the standings.
Rounds three
and four take place at a double header meeting at Croft circuit,
North Yorkshire on 20th/21st May.
Club Class Standings
after Round Two - Provisional
1 Ian Pearson
- GBR - 34 pts
3 Mark Terry -
GBR - Reon Motorsport - 22 pts
3 Simon Keast
- GBR - Muzz Race - 15 pts
4 Bob Pearson
- GBR - 14 pts
5 Andrew
Webb - GBR - 12 pts |
