The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website ' est1998
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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website ' est1998 |
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Driver Profile ' Alexander Sims
Nationality: British
Marital Status: Single Sponsors: Ocean Spray, Northern Fruit Company, Stemilt Growers, ILIP, Cobana, Wing Long
Career Highlights:
Formula Renault UK Championship ' 8th overall (1st at Donington Park, 2nd at Brands Hatch and Thruxton, achieved fastest race
lap at Donington and named Driver of the Day at Croft, Donington and
Thruxton); 2006:
Formula Renault UK Winter Championship ' 9th overall (2nd
at Croft and 5th at Brands Hatch);
Italian Karting Championship Open Masters ' 6th overall; 2003
Kartmasters ‘Grand Prix' Super Libre Senior Karting
Champion ' 1st; 2002
CIK'FIA 8th Monaco Kart Cup, Monte Carlo ' 1st; 2001
Super 1 MSA British Junior Kart Karting Championship '
4th overall; 2000
MSA Super 1 National Cadet Karting Champion ' 1st;
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Continued from News SOLID OPENING DAY AT SNETTERTON FOR RAPID SIMS
Formula Renault UK pre-season pace-setter Alexander Sims Although the timesheets show the Wansford based 19-year-old with the seventh fastest time overall, his best lap 1m 06.098 seconds (106.31mph), the true story behind the opening day of testing at Snetterton is one which saw Alexander running on old tyres throughout both sessions while his chief rivals utilised fresh rubber. Preferring to conserve tyres rather than unnecessarily waste them chasing the top of the times, the Manor Competition ace ended the day approximately half a second shy of the outright pace but knows he would have improved by that and more had he bolted fresh rubber onto his FR 2.0 car. His quickest time did actually come during the morning but in the rain-affected afternoon period, Alexander posted a lap of 1m 07.011 seconds (104.86mph) which was just 0.267 seconds away from the session best. Impressively, Alexander set this time on his first flying lap. “The first session was fully dry and we had a pretty good run”, explained Alexander, “The biggest thing for us was the fact quite a few of the other drivers used new tyres and we didn’t. We were still comfortable and pretty close to the pace so I’m very pleased. “We had no need to prove anything by chasing the top spot. Looking at the overall times really doesn’t tell the full story, we were strong all day and with the benefit of new tyres we would have been right there for sure. To be less than three 10ths of a second away in the afternoon on my first flying lap was very pleasing.” Having headed the previous official tests at Rockingham in Northamptonshire and Brands Hatch in Kent, Alexander is planning to be on top once again at Snetterton today, Wednesday, 12th March, although the weather could play a factor in bettering the day one times with high winds and inclement conditions expected. “It rained a bit yesterday afternoon but it wasn’t wet enough to get any proper wet weather testing done”, he continued, “It’s quite likely the weather will be bad for day two so it might affect how much good running we will actually get. “Ideally I think we’ll plan to try and set some quick times early and then take it from there, similar to how we approached the second day at Brands last week. Even though the overall times may not have indicated such, we were as strong yesterday as we were when we headed the times at Rockingham and Brands. It’s been a good day.”
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continued his momentum during official testing at Snetterton Circuit in
Norfolk yesterday, Tuesday, 11th March, the Manor Competition star
producing yet another first class performance.