Raoul Owens Took A Pair Of Top Twelve Finishes At Rockingham - Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Raoul Owens produced a pair of determined race drives during Rounds Four and Five of the 2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship to move himself up to the eleventh overall in the championship standings.
The 17 year old coped well with a number of red flags in the opening qualifying session to put himself thirteenth on the grid for the opener, however he was left disappointed in the second session when he could only qualifying eighteenth.
A good start to the opening race saw the Bright Spark Ventures-backed driver gained two places on the opening lap, running comfortably eleventh for a couple of laps before dropping a spot to championship contender Josh Webster. After a short safety car period, Owens was bundled down to fifteenth in the compacted midfield, however the Antel Motorsport driver fought back to thirteenth on lap fifteen, before gaining another place on the final lap to finish twelfth.
Round five was certainly the best session of the weekend for the second year racer. Making a clean start to the race, Owens began making steady progress through the midfield, moving up to fifteenth by lap four, before benefitting gaining four places on the final two laps to take a strong eleventh place finish.
South Africa-based Owens said: “I'm kind of disappointed with the weekend but happy at the same time. I know we had the dry weather pace to be in the top five in the races but starting so far back, especially in race two, always makes things so much more difficult in single-seaters.
“I'm happy I came up through the order fairly well, I got a good start in both races and we've scored quite well again which is important. Qualifying was obviously a mess with all of the red flags, it was hard to get in a lap at all. I know if we have a fully dry weekend, we should be able to get up there and try and fight for some podiums – our dry pace here was good.
“Last year there was no wet weather at all, there wasn't even one wet session I don't think, so I've got very little experience in the wet and that cost us again this weekend. I'm trying to learn in the season itself and you don't really want to be learning in qualifying! It's been hard trying to get my head around that but I'm getting there, I'm working really hard to try and get the technique right.”
