CRS Racing star Oliver Rowland picked up his first ever car racing win in the final round of the 2010 Formula Renault Winter Series. The 18 year old enjoyed a strong end to his debut car racing season in the championship's final weekend at Pembrey.
Rowland and his team mates Robert Foster-Jones and Evelin Frank had a busy weekend, competing in four races over the two days. Rowland enjoyed a good start to the weekend, taking fourth place in the opener, before finishing twelfth in Round four of the series. The Racing Steps Foundation backed driver took eighth in the penultimate round, before winning the finale, leaving the rookie a great seventh in the championship standings.
Commenting on the final race, Rowland said: “It was wet at the start of the race but the rain had stopped. Most people went for slicks but after completing our warm up laps I made the call for wets. It was a gamble but it totally paid off. Towards the end of the race the guys on slicks were taking two seconds out of my lead every lap. On the last lap I was close to being swallowed up and really had to defend before I was pretty much pushed across the line by the guy in P2! “
“It's fantastic to take the win,” he added. “So much so that I can't believe it. The hard work starts here though for next year.”
CRS Team Principal Andrew Kirkaldy was happy with his performance, saying: “I've been very impressed with Oliver's performance this weekend. To be seventh in the championship and only two points shy of one of the 2010 main championship contenders [Ollie Millroy] is an amazing achievement. This year's Winter Series has been very competitive and Oliver has excelled himself.”
Formula Renault race winner Foster-Jones suffered another difficult weekend at Pembrey, with contact ruling him out of the first race of the weekend. Two solid seventh place finishes followed, but a lowly 16th in the final race ended his campaign on a low.
“Rob has unfortunately had a very unlucky and difficult Winter Series,” said Kirkaldy. “Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong for him. He had a good run in the main championship this year and did a great job to win in his rookie year and I expect him to be a championship contender next year.”
Pembrey was another steep learning curve for team-mate Frank, but she once again enjoyed a solid weekend. Running in the BARC class, she finished the first three races before an unfortunate retirement in the final round, her only DNF during the campaign.
“Evelin has a great attitude towards her racing,” said Kirkaldy. “She came here to learn and she has really listened to what we have said and applied herself well. When you consider that all she has done before is some intermediate-level karting she has acquitted herself very well and she should be very happy with her performance.”
