UK 2000: Jeremy Metcalfe Croft test 2006-03-22

METCALFE QUICK ON RETURN TO SCENE OF MAIDEN VICTORY

Jeremy Metcalfe returned to the scene of his first ever Formula Renault UK race victory, Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire, today and declared himself fully satisfied with his pace during the first of two days of official testing.

After establishing himself as one of the coming men in Formula Renault UK during the final round of the 2005 Winter Championship at Croft last November, the Team Lemac AKA sensation has gone on to become one of the most consistently strong performers during pre-season testing this year.

Unsurprisingly, today was no different for the 17-year-old from Fleet in Hampshire as he ran among the pace-setters during both the morning and afternoon sessions, eventually ending the day with the sixth fastest time of 1m 17.248 seconds (99.12mph).

During the first of the day's two sessions, Jeremy produced the third quickest time with a lap of 1m 17.635 seconds (98.63mph), only two 10ths of a second adrift of the top spot.

But even though he knocked four 10ths of a second off his time during the afternoon, the teenage ace had to be content with a position inside the top six overall -- underlining the competitiveness of the series this year.

"I'm pretty happy again, we've been there or thereabouts at every one of the pre-season tests and today has been no different really", commented Jeremy.

"It's undoubtedly going to be a highly competitive season but things have gone well for us today, we've certainly enjoyed some very productive testing and it's been good to have the benefit of some fully dry running.

"I'm feeling very happy within the team, we're all working well together and I think we're in very good shape for a consistently strong championship campaign. First though, we need to focus on day two of testing here tomorrow and make full use of the time as it's only a fortnight until the openingrace of the season."

Croft will host the final day of official pre-season testing tomorrow, 23rd March, ahead of the opening two races of the 2006 Formula Renault UK Championship at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent on 8th/9th April.

-mom