After its winter break, the Formula BMW UK Championship field assembled at Brands Hatch on Friday 7^th April for its first meeting of the 2006 season.

Things went well for Curnow during free practice on the Friday when he posted fastest time of the day after trouble-free runs on a dry track.

Weather conditions changed overnight, however, and the early first qualifying session on Saturday started on a wet but drying surface. Curnow was unfortunately sent out on a full wet set up which did not suit the rapidly drying track and he soon found himself at a disadvantage. He pitted for a complete set up change but with only two laps remaining, he could only post a time which put him 12^th. ‘We simply made the wrong choice on set up and we didn’t have the time to put things right’, said a very disappointed Ross afterwards. The second qualifying session was in dry conditions but Ross suffered gearchange problems when downshifting and did well to mange 8^th fastest.

Sitting in an unfamiliar mid-field grid position for Race 1, Ross made a great start and amazingly overtook 5 cars on the first lap to come round in 7^th place. Traffic then presented problems for him but he picked up another place to finish 6th. In Race 2, traffic was also difficult but he got by two cars towards the end to finish 6^th again.

Ross was philosophical afterwards: ‘This is not the start to the season we wanted but we know the reasons. We have to go for points at Mondello and I’m confident we can get a couple of podiums there.’

The next two races will be at Mondello Park in Eire on the weekend of 22^nd/23^rd April with testing on Friday 21st.