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LUCKLESS SMITH ENDURES NIGHTMARE WEEKEND IN HUNGARY 

Dean Smith is aiming for a major turn around in fortunes when the Eurocup Formula Renault season resumes two months from now – the 20-year-old racer completing another luckless weekend on Sunday, 6th July, during the third event of the 2008 season in Hungary. 

The Wolverhampton based 20-year-old, competing in his first year of international racing with the Fortec Motorsport team, crashed out of seventh position during this morning’s sixth round of the championship at the Hungaroring with damage after being hit from behind by the Epsilon Euskadi car of Richard Campollo. 

Starting the race from 12th on the grid, Dean made a great getaway and through the first hairpin corner took the decision to run around the outside of the turn as his closest rivals all decided to fight over the inside line.  

Gaining four places in quick succession, the West Midlands driver then edged ahead into seventh ahead of Campollo on the run to the next corner but the Epsilon driver made contact with Dean’s car and the net result was a collision with the barriers for the Briton. 

“I must be the unluckiest guy in Eurocup Formula Renault at the minute”, said Dean, “I’m really fed up with all of the bad luck we’ve had this year so far but we’ve got to remain positive as I know we could have achieved a couple of points results this weekend, even though we didn’t have the quickest car out there.

“I made a good start and got up to eighth around the outside at the first corner while everyone else went up the inside. The Epsilon car didn’t go for the next turn though and just rammed into me, shooting my car up in the air.” 

He continued: “I managed to jump-start the car but the impact of the landing must have dislodged the brackets that hold the entire nose cone onto the car. It all came away under the car, became trapped, and I was a passenger then and went into the barriers.” 

Saturday’s fifth round was similarly luckless, the 2005 Formula BMW UK Champion and 2007 Formula Renault UK Vice-Champion suffering a rear puncture on the opening lap after yet more contact from a rival.  

Forcing him to pit with a cut tyre having climbed into 11th place from 15th on the grid, he rejoined in 36th, and last, position but ended the race in 29th place – a great achievement in itself having emerged from the pits well over a minute shy of the car in 35th position. 

Producing superb pace, Dean fought back well after his enforced pitstop and he made good headway through, what initially appeared to be, an insurmountable challenge to gain even just one additional place. Impressively, with all of the problems he encountered, Dean’s best lap time of 1m 45.984 seconds (148.8km/h) was the sixth quickest of the race. 

Commenting on Saturday’s events, he said: “From the start I made up about four places and then at the exit of the chicane one of my rear tyres popped as it was cut by a car from behind. I didn’t even know what had happened at the time. I didn’t feel a thing and didn’t see anything but the team told me what had happened afterwards.

“I pitted at the end of the first lap to get the wheel changed. We knew we’d lost far too much time to have any impact on the race but going back out at least enabled me to judge how the car behaved over the race distance and to see how it felt. The front end was awesome but the back end wasn’t great.” 

Dean added: “It was really disappointing as I know we could have had a good top 10 finish at least, but our race pace wasn’t bad and I managed to set the sixth fastest lap. We need to find more speed from the car to qualify higher, the car felt very good to drive but over a lap the raw pace just isn’t there.” 

Clearly, with an incident-free weekend in Eurocup Formula Renault, Dean will undoubtedly be a true force to be reckoned with. There is now a lengthy eight-week break before the seventh and eighth rounds of the championship take place over the weekend 30th/31st August at the world famous Nurburgring in Germany

 

Fortec Motorsport’s Dean Smith leaves Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit this afternoon, Sunday, 8th June, confident in the knowledge his Eurocup Formula Renault season is moving in the right direction after a truly stunning performance during the fourth race of the 2008 championship. After his supernb effort on fSaturday, where he overtook an incredible 24 cars, the 20-year-old  lapped with great style and determination yet again today as he fought through from 42nd, and last, on the grid to a richly deserved top 16 finish after 16 laps of action under glorious sunshine.

 

Even though he never had clear laps where he could push for out and out quick times as he made his way through the lengthy train of FR 2.0 cars, Dean still produced the third fastest race lap of any driver with a time of 1m 48.364 seconds (170.8mph) – an indication of what would have been possible had he started anywhere inside the top 20.

 

“I didn’t have a good start really, people were away quite cleanly and I didn’t make up as many places over the first few laps as I did in yesterday’s race”, said Dean, “The car was much better today, we made some changes and they allowed me to catch the cars ahead quicker – we did run less wing today to give better speed down the straights.

 

“The grip levels weren’t too bad with the warmer weather. I had a little bit of understeer but that was when I was behind people. As soon as I had cleared cars it was different. I’m really looking forward to the next races now in Hungary. We still need to improve the car and get even more speed from it but we’ve made a lot of progress since the first round.”

 

Starting from the back of the grid, as he had to in yesterday’s first race due to a technical ruling in qualifying which saw his lap times deleted, Dean made a reasonable getaway and by the end of lap one he had gained five positions.

 

Moving into the top 30 before the end of lap four, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star then gained four additional spots over the next couple of tours and by lap 10 he had moved into 23rd position.

 

Lapping much faster than his rivals – up to 1.9 seconds quicker than those in his immediate company – Dean closed down a three and a half second gap in the space of two laps and into lap 13 he was inside the top 20.

 

Heading into the final lap in 17th position, Dean passed Frenchman Benjamin Lariche to move into the top 16 – a thoroughly superb effort from the West Midlands sensation, gaining an unbelievable 26 positions to even outshine Saturday’s stunning drive.

 

Incredibly, the 2007 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist continued to set quick times as the race entered the closing stages and on the final tour he set his best sectors of the race in the last two thirds of the lap.

Although Dean is still yet to enjoy a maiden Eurocup Formula Renault points result, only the top 10 finishers in each race scoring points, the outstanding pace and skill he has shown throughout the Silverstone weekend prove he has the ability to be a serious challenger during the remainder of the 2008 campaign, with better fortune on his side.

 

Next stop on the Formula Renault Eurocup calendar is a visit to the Hungaroring near Budapest for the fifth and sixth rounds of the championship a month from now, 5th/6th July

DEAN SMITH STUNS EUROCUP FIELD AT SILVERSTONE 

Wolverhampton’s Dean Smith produced one of the performances of his career during the first of the weekend’s Eurocup Formula Renault races at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on Saturday, 7th June – the British driver overtaking an unbelievable 24 cars after problems in qualifying meant he had to start from the back of the grid. 

Beginning the weekend very well indeed with excellent test pace on Thursday and Friday, the 20-year-old’s debut appearance on the 3.2-mile GP track, he continued his stunning form this morning by qualifying for the Superpole session and going on to record the second fastest time of 1m 45.175 seconds (175.9 km/h) to grab a front row grid slot. 

Delighted to enjoy such a strong showing at his home venue, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star was soon served with the bitterly disappointing news he would have to start both of the weekend’s races from the back of the grid due to a technical issue with the rear floor on his Fortec Motorsport entered car. 

The actuality of the infringement noted by race officials was a portion of rear floor on Dean’s car that was just a single millimetre too high. Even though this was a handicap to his pace and competitiveness rather than a benefit, because the car was effectively outside the permitted parameters the West Midlands racer’s times were all disallowed. 

Fully focused in his approach to today’s race, Dean set about the task in hand – nothing short of a mountain to climb starting 42nd and last on the grid – in typically professional style and produced a breathtaking performance. Over just 15 racing laps, he managed to climb into 18th position at the finish – a rise through the order of 24 positions! 

Speaking after the race, Dean said: “Nobody really came off the circuit during the race, apart from one or two I had to overtake every car. I just got my head down and found gaps, the Grand Prix track isn’t the hardest of places to overtake at but I’m really pleased with how things went in the race. 

“Our speed was very good on the exit of corners but I had quite a lot of understeer going into turns, which made things a bit tricky. Overall the car was good, we just need to make a few changes before tomorrow’s race and hopefully we can finish even higher than 18th.”  

Gaining one position off the grid at the start of Saturday’s Eurocup Formula Renault race, by the end of lap one Dean had made his way past eight cars and on lap two he broke into the top 30 as he carved his way through the huge train of cars ahead. 

Into lap eight, the 2005 Formula BMW UK Champion and 2007 Formula Renault UK Vice-Champion had made his way into 22nd place but his progress didn’t cease. Running in 21st position as the race entered its 10th tour, Dean closed on the tail of Fortec team-mate Daniel McKenzie – who had started in 16th position – and overtook him into lap 11. 

Claiming two further places before the finish, Dean’s climb through the order was simply awe-inspiring and a reminder of just what might have been had he started from the front row of the grid as his qualifying pace deserved and warranted.
“Who knows what we could have done if we had started on the front row as we should have?”, he said