Zaamin Jaffer led the way for reigning champions Hillspeed at Croft in the official Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship test. Jaffer improved throughout to end the second day third fastest, while his team-mate Sean Walkinshaw set his quickest time during session two on day one.
20 year old Jaffer, who moves into the series from Formula Ford, displayed pace throughout the two day's that showed he will be frontrunner during 2011. The Indian driver finished fourth fastest in all three sessions during the first day with a best time of 1min 20.749s, before improving to finish third on day two with a 1min 20.432s lap, just over half a second off the top runners.
Team-mate Walkinshaw, who is also making his debut in the series this season, ran well throughout the two days at the North Yorkshire circuit. The first day saw him improve his times by over two seconds during the day, ending seventh fastest with a 1min 22.853s. An early excursion on cold tyres on day two left the 17 year old frustrated, but he overcome it to set the eleventh fastest time of the day, a 1min 22.953s.
Commenting on the first official test of the year, team principal Richard Ollerenshaw said: “We had two productive days at Croft, Zaamin made very good progress and his transition from the non-aero car in Formula Ford to the aero driven Formula Renault BARC car has been impressive. There's definitely more to come from him and we're very hopeful he'll be a consistent front-runner all season.
“Prior to coming to Croft Sean had only been out for a handful of days over the winter so we're happy with the progress he's making as well, especially as over the last couple of days he didn't run new tyres at all. Unfortunately on the second morning he had a small off, which resulted in him missing the entire first session, but after that he ran well. We're pleased with his performance.”
The team will be out on track next over two days at Silverstone, with its Ginetta Junior drivers Seb Morris and Struan Moore on track during the Ginetta Media Day on Thursday 17th March, before the BARC runners visit the circuit next day for their Media Day.
