Solid performance from Curnow at Silverstone (12 May 04) 

The Formula BMW UK Championship moved to Silverstone on the weekend of 8^th and 9^th May, where qualifying for the two races took place in the wet for the first time. 

Ross Curnow (Panther Motorsport) adapted to the conditions well but was disappointed to qualify 2^nd Rookie and 15^th overall in the first session. “I was running about 8^th overall but I couldn’t find track space in the last few minutes of the session when times started to come down significantly,” said Ross. 

For Session 2, the rain had stopped but the track was still wet and conditions continued to change during the session. Panther had made adjustments to the car since the morning and following helpful advice from BMW’s Andy Priaulx over the lunch period, Ross qualified fastest Rookie and 7^th overall. This was a superb effort in difficult conditions for someone in their first season in single-seaters. Having been applauded as he drove down the pit lane at the end, he said “It was very slippery out there and I realised I had to just drive the car as best I could and not think too much about the handling.” 

Conditions were still wet on the Sunday for Race 1 and by the end of the third lap, Ross was up to 10^th when the safety car was deployed to enable Josh Fisher’s car to be removed from the pit wall. On the restart, Ross found himself in a coming together with two other cars after he was hit from behind. This effectively finished his race but he recovered to finish, albeit without a front wing. 

His engineer, Christoff Vandekerckhove from Belgium (pictured with Ross), and the rest of the lads at Panther did a great job on the car to get Ross out for the second race, by which time the track had dried. Ross got a good start and held onto his 7^th position but ran wide at Beckets and dropped to 15^th. He then fought impressively and clawed his way back to 6^th, ahead of Norwegian, Stian Sorlie, whom he sensibly let by on the last lap. “There was no point in trying to race with him and risk losing the class win,” said Ross afterwards. The 16 year-old is showing maturity as well as talent. 

Ross therefore took the Rookie class honours for the third time this season and went home having extended his lead in the Championship by a further 3 points. 

The next two rounds of the Formula BMW UK Championship are at Oulton Park on  23^rd May. 

(Extracts courtesy of BMW Motorsport and FormulaWorld)

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