Luke Wright has ended his first full season in car racing among the top six in the fiercely-contested Formula Renault BARC Championship after a superb rookie campaign.
The 18-year-old from Dorset, who starred on the British and international karting scenes before graduating to cars at the end of 2009, scored podium results at five of the six double-header events, and topped his year with a win at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire.
Wright was considered all season as one of the top drivers in the series, even though he was up against many rivals with considerably more experience. And, without the funds required to join one of the big, established squads, he was driving for a small team that was in its first year of business.
“We went out there to do as well as we could, against people who had already done their learning years and so they weren’t making mistakes,” says Wright. “As a rookie you know you’re going to make mistakes, and at first you beat yourself up about them, but you soon realise that as long as you learn from each one – and don’t make the same one again – then that’s OK.”
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Luke’s first outing of the season provided a stunning charge from seventh on the grid to second at Brands Hatch |
Proving that he’s a fast learner, Luke’s first outing of the season provided a stunning charge from seventh on the grid to second at Brands Hatch, a circuit that is regarded as almost impossible to overtake on. “That was excellent,” he grins.
FIRST WIN AT CROFT
Third time out came that victory at Croft, where he held off a driver with three full seasons of experience, one of which was in the senior Formula Renault UK Championship! “That was absolutely mega,” he recalls. “I had to do the job under the highest possible pressure and didn’t lose my head. I got the lead off the grid when the pole position man bogged down, and then I pulled away.
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“There was a safety car, which lost me my advantage, and everyone was weaving around behind me heating their tyres up like we usually do. But I knew that the surface at Croft makes the tyres very hot anyway, and so I didn’t weave. At the restart I just pulled away again with my tyres in better shape, and by the time they started catching me again it was too late for them. That was a fully-earned win – because of the safety car I had to do it twice!”
Wright ended the season with podiums at Snetterton, Rockingham and Thruxton, although at the last two of these circuits he suffered from a straight-line speed problem, suspecting the engine was down on power. That meant that he was forced to set the car up with the shallowest possible angle of wing settings, to improve straight-line speed – and display some great defensive driving in the corners… “It rooted the tyres and they were all over me,” he says, “but I needed to do it because I was getting killed in a straight line.”
Luke’s ability to get results in such adversity was proof again of his progress in his maiden season – and this has impressed Mark Godwin, his ultra-experienced race engineer, who over the past decade has engineered two drivers to the Formula Renault UK title as well as many other competitors to race victories.
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"He will try things that other people won’t even think of, and we saw that especially at Brands – we forgot to tell him you can’t overtake there!" |
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