Archie Hamilton had a mixed weekend in Rounds Seven and Eight of the 2011 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship at Croft, suffering his first retirement of the season in the opening race before returning to the podium in the second race, continuing his record of taking at least one podium at each meeting this season.
The 20 year old was the fastest of the Fortec Motorsport runners during Saturdays opening qualifying session, setting the third best time despite struggling with traffic. He followed this up with the fourth fastest time in qualifying two.
The opening race was to prove a disaster for the Basingstoke-based racer, when on the approach to the first corner, he got hit from behind his team-mate Kieran Vernon, sending him spinning into his other team-mate Josh Webster, with both of them ending their races in the gravel.
This gave the Fortec team a lot of work to do between races to rebuild the cars, but a superb effort by the team ensured Hamilton made it out for the second race. He repaid them with a strong run, jumping into third at the start and holding the place throughout for his fourth podium of the season.
Hamilton said: “Race one is one to forget. It's a great shame that I lost valuable points needlessly. At least there is the chance to drop one race in this championship. As long as I keep a clean sheet for the rest of the season I'm hopefully still in with a shout of a decent season result. I can't thank the team enough for its hard work on mine and Josh's cars. It made my third feel like a win after all the hard work.”
