UK 2.0: David Epton Croft preview

JDavid Epton heads to Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire in just over a week's time aiming to conclude the first half of the season on a high by taking his maiden Formula Renault UK Championship podium.

The 25-year-old, who is sponsored by Bombardier Learjet, Universal Weather & Aviation Inc and Jet-Air, has produced some excellent performances since returning to the British Touring Car Championship-supporting category in time for the third round of the current season and is now confident his first-ever Formula Renault UK podium is on the horizon.

Having recorded a series-best finish of fourth place at Thruxton during the sixth round of the year, David went on to take a well deserved top six result in round eight at Knockhill in Scotland almost three weeks ago and is now, already, 12th in the driver standings even though he missed the two opening races of the campaign.

Now David is living in Preston, where he works for Bae Systems, Croft is actually his second-closest race circuit and the Scorpio Motorsport ace is hoping to give his personal sponsors and team sponsor Apotex Pharmaceuticals the reward of seeing him step onto a Formula Renault UK podium for the first time in his career.

"I'm looking forward to Croft", commented David, "We have a quick car at all types of circuit now and I think we have a good set-up for Croft so I'm confident we can be well inside the top 10 during testing and then the top six in qualifying would be great.

"I'm fairly sure we'll have a very good race package so I'm hoping we can be in the top six for both races and there will hopefully be the chance for something even better. I'd like to think we will have the pace to challenge for the podium and I don't think that's an unrealistic aim."

The 2.1-mile Croft Circuit usually promotes good racing between the 2.0-litre 'slicks and wings' Formula Renault UK cars and so David is greatly looking forward to the challenge the North Yorkshire venue will present during rounds nine and 10 of the season.

He added: "Croft is quite a nice circuit. The first corner is quick and then followed by a challenging chicane before a smooth run to Tower Corner. You have to be fast through Sunny In and Sunny Out to have any hope of a good lap time and then you must let the car do the work through the final section of track.

"There's much more time to be lost than there is to be gained through the hairpin, so it's important to be very smooth. You must keep things very neat and tidy in order to get good exit speed into your next lap. It should be a good weekend and we're certainly confident of some very good results."

Official testing will take place on Friday, 14th July, with two qualifying sessions and the ninth round of the season taking place on Saturday, 15th July. Round 10 will then be held on Sunday, 16th July, at 16.05 and will be broadcast live on Motors TV -- available on channel 413 of the Sky Digital platform and via cable provider NTL on channel 173.

-mom-