UK Winter: Oliver Rowland Pembrey summary

THRILLING VICTORY FOR OLIVER ROWLAND AT PEMBREY

Oliver Rowland took his first ever victory in a racing car at Pembrey in Wales yesterday. The 18 year-old karting champion from Sheffield won the final round of the 2010 Formula Renault Winter Series, taking the Racing Steps Foundation-backed car across the line a whisker ahead of some very strong competition. Along with a fourth place finish in the first of Saturday's races, this result gives Oliver seventh place in the championship, an excellent result for a rookie.

Four races were held at Pembrey this weekend so the pressure was on the drivers from the outset. Oliver got his weekend off to a great start by taking fourth place, from eighth on the grid, in race one. A 12th and an eighth followed in the next two races, before he lined up in 11th place for the start of the final race of the weekend.

"It was wet at the start of the race but the rain had stopped," explained Rowland. "Most people went for slicks but after completing our warm up laps I made the call for wets. It was a gamble but it totally paid off. Towards the end of the race the guys on slicks were taking two seconds out of my lead every lap. On the last lap I was close to being swallowed up and really had to defend before I was pretty much pushed across the line by the guy in P2! "

"It's fantastic to take the win," he continued. "So much so that I can't believe it. The hard work starts here though for next year."

"I've been very impressed with Oliver's performance this weekend," said CRS Team Principal, Andrew Kirkaldy. "To be seventh in the championship and only two points shy of one of the 2010 main championship contenders (Ollie Millroy) is an amazing achievement. This year's Winter Series has been very competitive and Oliver has excelled himself."

Robert Foster-Jones had another difficult weekend. The Knockhill race-winner was taken out at the start of the first race of the weekend, recovered to seventh place in the second, then took a seventh and a 16th place in Sunday's two races.

"Rob has unfortunately had a very unlucky and difficult Winter Series," said Kirkaldy. "Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong for him. He had a good run in the main championship this year and did a great job to win in his rookie year and I expect him to be a championship contender next year."

Evelin Frank learned a tremendous amount about racing during the last two weekends. Of the six Winter Series races she finished five of them, passing four cars in the final race on Sunday.

"Evelin has a great attitude towards her racing," said Kirkaldy. "S he came here to learn and she has really listened to what we have said and applied herself well. When you consider that all she has done before is some intermediate-level karting she has acquitted herself very well and she should be very happy with her performance."

-source: Oliver Rowland