Two more podiums adds to victory tally for Crawley teenager Hand

The Crawley teenager racer had qualified his Westbourne Racing Renault Clio second in class for the opening race of the weekend, just 0.018 secs off Scott Symon’s pole position time. “I was held up on my best lap and was on for pole, but after that it was too late to improve,” he said.

As the lights went out he was down to fourth behind Symon, Richard Ashmole and Rhys Lloyd on the opening lap, before mounting his recovery. “I got held up by a car out of position,” he explained.

“Then I got Lloyd into Stowe after a chase down the Hanger Straight on lap three and Ashmole at the Hairpin a lap later for second,” he added.

The gap to Symon’s lead was up to five seconds, but after Symon made his compulsory pitstop on lap 11, they rejoined in the same order and despite Hand’s efforts, the gap remained almost stubbornly dormant and on this occasion he had to settle for second place.

Lining up directly behind his rival on the grid for race two, Hand got the jump to lead the class on the opening lap and was 10th overall too. “I was concentrating on the lights ready for the start and was already getting clear of him into Copse and trying to get a good gap,” he said.

Hand got his head down to build a lead, only to be thwarted by a safety car intervention for a couple of laps. The green flag was waved on lap five and the action was underway again, with lead starting to build again. On this occasion he pitted before Symon, having built a 1.827 secs lead, rejoining with his class lead intact, as his rival stopped a lap later.

He was into seventh place overall with a lap to go, but more importantly the class lead was over six seconds and victory was secured.

“I just tried to keep it simple and cruise to the finish to make it count,” he concluded.

There are just two more weekends left in this years Championship, both at Donington Park, on August 14 and October 23.