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Ross
launches international career with drive for DeWalt Racing (17 Oct
04)
 Following his
success at Donington Park where he won the Formula BMW UK Rookie
Championship, Ross Curnow made his international debut at
Hockenheim on the weekend of 2nd/3rd October.
The one-off drive in
the last round of the German Formula BMW Championship was offered
to him within minutes of his victory at Donington where he
impressed BMW officials with his outstanding performance. Alan Curnow said: “The KUG DeWalt Racing Team had a place
available and BMW steered them towards Ross. It was a great
opportunity for us but we’d just finished our last race of the
season and had no budget left.”
It looked as if the
Curnow team were going to have to say no but local business
man, Peirce Waddington, stepped in to help. His company, FDC –
Fires and Places Ltd of Salisbury, had already given support to
Ross throughout his UK season. “This was a golden opportunity for
Ross”, said Peirce, “and I couldn’t see him miss it for want of
some more funding.”
 The weekend provided
valuable experience for Ross who only had an hour’s testing on the
Friday to learn the Hockenheim circuit in very bad weather
conditions. The following day, however, he surprised onlookers by
qualifying in 10th position in one of the sessions –
ahead of both his team-mate and Federico Montoya, brother of Juan
Pablo Montoya, the BMW Williams driver who won this year’s German
Grand Prix at the same circuit.
In both races, Ross
was hit from behind in multi-car skirmishes and sustained damage
which severely affected the handling of the car but he continued
to the finish. Ross said afterwards: “The racing is much more
aggressive over here and I’ve learnt a lot. The guys at DeWalt
Racing have been very supportive and working with a different team
has widened my knowledge considerably. The German fans were
amazing – I’m not used to signing autographs till after dark!”
 Ross continues to
look for business backing for next year’s season which begins in
April.
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