Luke Wright has announced he will make a one-off return to the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship this weekend at Croft in North Yorkshire. The Dorset racer, who currently completes in the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK, will run with MGR Motorsport as an 11th hour replacement for Russell Danzey.
Sheffield based Danzey has been forced onto the sidelines due to budget difficulties, with 18 year old Wright returning to fill the void in the Loughborough based team. Wright has strong links with the MGR team, having raced with them in the 2010 Formula Renault UK Winter Series, taking two podiums.
18 year old Wright has enjoyed some great results at Croft over recent years, taking his maiden Formula Renault BARC victory at the circuit in 2010, before taking his maiden Clio Cup podium at the circuit back in mid-June. He will be hoping to continue the run this weekend and improve on the team's best finish this season of sixth.
Team Principal Mark Godwin said: “We're delighted to have Luke with us at Croft this weekend but obviously disappointed for Russell that he's had to pull out of this one. This will give him a bit more time to get the sponsorship in – he hopes to be back out for the next round at Thruxton.
“I'm sure Luke will get back into things pretty quickly, it is quite difficult to adapt from a front-wheel drive like a Clio to the rear-wheel drive BARC car but it shouldn't be a problem. He has some good experience so if he can get up to speed it'll help the other guys in the team to have some more data to work with.”
Wright will join regular MGR drivers Matt Mason and David Wagner at Croft, the duo sitting ninth and eleventh in the championship standings respectively after strong starts to their maiden full car racing seasons.
Godwin added: “Considering they're all rookies I'm really pleased with how the year has gone so far. I knew we wouldn't be in a position to win yet, especially when you look at the people at the front who have two or three years experience – in some cases more than that. It is tough to come in without an experienced driver but we're just focused on doing as good a job as we can.”
