Perfect Weekend For Rowland As Title Goes Down To The Wire
Ollie Rowland scored a perfect weekend at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, as the Fortec Motorsport racer took two lights to flag victories in dominant fashion.
As the sun shone on the 2.3 mile circuit, Rowland dominated from the outset and made the most of his brace of pole positions.
In the first race, Rowland led home a Fortec 1-2 as Championship leader Alex Lynn followed his impressive team-mate home, ahead of Tio Ellinas.
There was frantic action in the midfield on the opening laps as both Manor cars of Josh Hill and Alice Powell made up two places taking Fortec pair Ed Jones and Alex Walker.
Dan Wells lost ground at the start after the fast starting Sailsbury racer was pushed towards the pit wall by Jordan King, causing him to drop to seventh place. He would re-pass Felix Serralles in the coming laps and set upon re-taking his fifth place from Dan Cammish before a late spin put an end to his charge.
Out front, Rowland never looked like losing his lead and while pulling out a three second advantage he beat a two-year-old lap record set by James Calardo, with a time of 1.23.038secs.
“It almost felt easy today, the car was so perfect,” said a thrilled Rowland. “I was a little bit worried about the start because we have struggled a bit with them this year, but I got off the line well. I just kept on pushing as the car felt so good. Everything was perfect today.”
Championship leader Lynn followed team-mate Rowland home with Ellinas just behind. After a brief safety car period only nine tenths of a second separated the top three.
“We had a good race,” said Lynn. “I made a good start and got into second in the first corner in front of Tio, so that’s the main thing. Ollie drove a really good race and was really fast so it was just all about keeping Tio behind me and making sure that we got the championship points that are needed.”
Ellinas tried hard to pass Lynn, but couldn’t find a way past the Essex-racer. This left the gap going into round eighteen just thirty-nine points, meaning Lynn only needed a third place to seal the title.
With positions largely the same as race one, Lynn and Rowland lined up on the front row. Lynn seemingly got the jump on Rowland but replays showed Lynn made a clear jump start. A lap later Lynn pitted for his drive through, freeing Rowland.
Rowland built a lead from King, who managed to jump Ellinas at the start. But King pitted on lap three, believing he jumped the start like Lynn.
Rowland romped away and completed a perfect weekend taking a pair of pole positions, fastest laps and race wins.
“What a wicked weekend,” exclaimed Rowland as he got out of the car. “I wanted to win the race on the track, so I chased Alex hard for two laps, but just couldn’t catch him. I carried on pushing when I was out in the lead and I’m delighted to get two poles, two wins and two fastest laps. I’m looking to go to Silverstone now and win two more races.”
Ellinas profited from Lynn’s overzealous start to close the gap to just twenty seven points.
“This is a very good ending to the weekend,” explained Ellinas. “I was happy to bring the car home in second, and I am very happy that the title will go down to the wire at Silverstone. I’m just going to go there in two weeks’ time and push as hard as I can.”
Behind these two a titanic scrap for third took place between Dan Cammish, Dan Wells & Felix Serralles. Wells held third place for a majority of the race before a small mistake let Cammish take the position.
“To be honest I knew from the second I set off that I was racing for third as I saw Lynn jump the lights,” said Cammish. “From then on I knew that because overtaking here is very difficult, I had to play the waiting game behind Wells. Eventually, I pressured him into an error and the result came.”
Lynn and King tried hard to gain lost ground, but only Lynn could make inroads into the field. His ninth place finished leaves the championship finely poised going into the final two rounds at Silverstone.
Mike Trusler
