Double M Racing’s manager Ross Curnow chose the last round of the Formula Renault BARC Championship at Silverstone on 5^th October to have another outing in one of the cars his team runs. Without the finance to fund a competitive drive in 2008, Curnow is developing his race engineering experience in his role with Double M and climbing into the driver’s seat himself for the occasional race.

Qualifying sessions for this double header meeting took place in dry conditions on the Saturday. In the first, Ross ran fastest for most of the session but as the track improved and the field quickened, he lost 2/10ths on his last lap and qualified 4^th, just 8/100ths off pole. The second session worked out well and saw him qualify on the front row, 3/10ths off pole.

Race day dawned with appalling conditions and it seemed possible early on that the meeting would have to be abandoned. The weather improved at lunch-time however, and after a delayed start, the programme went ahead.

As the lights went out for Race 1, Ross had a great start from the second row and led into the first corner. Amidst the spray, the lead changed several times and after being overtaken into Brooklands, dropping him to 3^rd, Ross then found himself in 2^nd again. Down on straightline speed, and with backmarkers struggling in the conditions, he decided to settle for 2^nd place and maintained this to the flag.

By the time Race 2 started, a dry line was appearing and the field started on slicks. After another good start, Ross held on to 2^nd before moving up to 1^st place after race leader Yousif took a trip into the gravel. Ross then dropped to 2^nd again after a move from Seidlitz over the start/finish line which alarmed the commentators more than the drivers. With a straightline speed problem again, Ross had to work hard to hold on to him and found himself in the gravel at Beckets which put him right down the field, finally finishing 12^th but with fastest lap.

Ross said afterwards: ‘It’s been a good weekend for us. We’ve shown the Double M cars are capable of running at the front of the field and it was good from my point of view to find I could be up with the championship front runners who’ve been driving these cars all season.’