Salisbury driver Ross Curnow celebrated winning 3^rd place in the Formula BMW UK Championship after an eventful last meeting.  Having struggled to find grip in the second qualifying session, he ran two impressive races to secure the 3^rd championship position, just 4 points short of 2^nd.

The Northamptonshire circuit was the venue for the last two rounds of the championship on the weekend of 14^th/15^th October. Curnow went into the weekend in 2^nd position but under serious challenge from Euan Hankey and Oliver Turvey, the latter having won the last two races.

Friday testing was delayed by fog but once it got under way, things went well for Ross who led the times for most of the morning session and finished second fastest by the end. The afternoon session was warmer and changes were made to the set up which didn’t produce the improvement expected, Ross managing only 7^th fastest time.

On Saturday morning, there was a re-run of Friday’s weather which with worried organizers, waiting for the fog to lift again. Once the sun had done its job and burned the fog away for the first qualifying session, Ross got to work with settings changed back to the previous morning and again topped the charts for most of the time. A couple of quick laps from Turvey and Hankey right at the end, however, pipped Ross for pole putting him back to third, just 0.1 sec off.

The afternoon qualifying session presented similar weather conditions to the previous afternoon - when Ross had not gone well. In addition, a great deal of rubber had been laid down by the Touring Cars and other formulae which presented further set up questions for the teams. Ross struggled with handling problems throughout but again ran fastest for most of the session and looked as if he was heading for pole. In the last few moments, however, the data screens came alive with new fastest laps and once the flag came out, it was clear Ross had tumbled to 10^th with Hankey 7^th. The top ten were separated by just 0.3 sec.

‘We just made slight changes but the car was completely different. I was suffering severe understeer on the entry into Brooklands and then fighting oversteer on the way out’, said a dejected Ross afterwards. ‘This is exactly the position we didn’t want. Turvey’s on pole for both races and Hankey’s  also ahead of me on the grid for both. I probably can’t touch Turvey now, so my focus must be to beat Hankey for 3^rd in the championship.

Sunday dawned clear, much to everyone’s relief, and Race 1 started on time. Breen got the jump on Curnow and Hankey off the line pushing them to 3^rd and 4^th and Ross lost another place to Meadows on Lap 2. That’s the way things stayed until Lap 19 when Hankey had a problem going into Brooklands allowing both Meadows and Curnow through. Ross finished 4^th therefore and - crucially - one place ahead of Hankey.

In Race 2, Ross started from the unfamiliar area of the middle of the grid and passed Eng on Lap1, Sato on Lap 2 and Mansell on Lap 3 to climb to 7^th, two places behind Hankey. On Lap 11, Hankey lost a place putting him just in front of Ross and 3 laps later, Ross dived for the inside at Copse and squeezed by him to take 6^th. He held him off to the finish and with Turvey finishing 2^nd in the race, this secured 3^rd place in the championship for Ross, just 4 points behind Turvey and 15 points ahead of Hankey.

‘We’re naturally disappointed to have not taken 2^nd in the championship but after our poor qualifying on Friday afternoon, this is everything we could have hoped for’, said Ross. At the BMW ‘Power Party’ on Sunday evening, Ross was presented with his trophy by Peter Walker, General Manager, Sports Marketing, BMW (UK) and Andy Priaulx, FIA World Touring Car Champion and chief instructor for the Formula BMW UK Championship.

Asked about future plans on Monday, Ross said: ‘We’re hoping to make an announcement about the World Finals in Valencia very shortly. As for 2007, I’m afraid it’s all about funding. We’ve had several approaches and are currently in discussions on two or three specific options. Whether these will come to anything, we will have to see, but I hope very much that I’ll be out racing again next year.’

(Photo 5 courtesy of Yavar Zare)