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Ollie's next outing is on Sunday 23rd November when he will be a member of British Formula 1 winner, Johnny Herbert's team. The Johnny Herbert karting challenge is an annual event, which this year is being held at The Raceway, Docklands in order to raise money for charity.

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OLLIE'S CHARGE AT THE 55th MACAU GRAND PRIX

Things didn't go quite to plan for BMW junior development driver Ollie Millroy this weekend in Macau, when unfortunately he hit a wall in his first flying lap of qualifying, which meant he started on the very back row of the grid for the race on Sunday. Ollie was competing as a guest driver with Kent based Motaworld Racing, for the final round of the Formula BMW Pacific championship, on the amazing street circuit where the 55th Macau Grand Prix was held.

All went well for the British MSA Race Elite academy driver in free practice on Thursday when, with a car that was later found to have a faulty front damper, he was fourth quickest, one and a half seconds quicker than the fifth placed car.

On Saturday, with the damper replaced and confidence high, Ollie went out to qualify when on his first flying lap he locked up slightly, hit a patch of oil left down from the previous session and lost control, hitting the wall and putting an end to his chances of a good grid position.

"I made a mistake" said Ollie. "I was feeling very confident on what I think is by far the most amazing circuit I have ever driven on. I was just getting my rhythm when I locked up slightly and caught a patch of oil and that was me finished. I was pretty upset but I only had myself to blame. You have to race here to believe how good it is but you can't make a mistake. It is very unforgiving and when you do get it wrong you're in the wall and out of the race."

Starting from the back row of the grid for the race on Sunday, Ollie made a perfect start overtaking two cars off the line and by the end of a solid first lap he was up to thirteenth place and still going forward. By lap six he was tenth and quickly catching the next group when one of the front runners came off and the race was stopped, moving Ollie up to ninth position.

"It was a shame that the race was stopped but I paid the price for coming off in qualifying, although I must say I really enjoyed the race while it lasted. I was going well and I'm pretty sure I could have made up a few more places if the race hadn't been stopped. The Motaworld team did a good job with the car again this weekend and worked hard repairing it on Saturday evening to get me out on Sunday. The weekend wasn't how I would have liked it to be but what a circuit and country, it's awesome and I am looking forward to coming back next year."

OLLIE PRODUCES THE ‘PERFECT’ WIN IN SHANGHAI

BMW junior development driver Ollie Millroy again showed the form that earned him a coveted BMW Europe scholarship in Valencia last year, when he took a superb win for himself and Kent based race team Motaworld Racing, at the Shanghai International Circuit. The Claygate teenager travelled to China with the team on Tuesday, to race as a guest driver in the Formula BMW Pacific Championship, alongside the penultimate round of the Formula 1 World Championship and on his arrival declared the circuit ‘awesome’.

Ollie’s weekend began on Friday morning with 20 minute free practice and only a ten minute break before the 20 minute qualifying session. “This is very unusual and made the team’s job pretty difficult,” said Ollie. “None of us had ever been here before and we didn’t have any time between free practice and qualifying to check the data or change the setup of the car. Although the car wasn’t handling as we would have liked it to, the team did what they could under the circumstances and I qualified P3 for both races”.

In an action packed 10 lap race on Saturday, Ollie made what has become his usual good start and moved up to second place, with a great move around the outside of Simon Moss at the first corner, a position he held for the remainder of the lap. With another great move on champion elect Ross Jamison on lap two, Ollie took the lead but as the race progressed and the track started to gain more grip, the setup of the car came into play and Ollie lost back two places to Moss and Atlantic Racing Team driver Gabby Chaves, dropping him back to third. He managed to maintain this position until the last lap when a charging Ross Jamison made a move up the inside, dropping Ollie back to fourth place at the flag.

“We struggled quite a bit in race one with under-steer and too much front wing, which caused a slight lack of pace down the long straight, but considering the fact that we had never been here before and our lack of laps and data, we managed to get the car home in a respectable fourth position. The race enabled us to collect a lot of data on how the car was handling and this led to the team spending a long day working on the setup for Sunday.”

The teams effort resulted in a big improvement in the cars handling on Sunday and an impressive performance from Ollie in race two  saw him immediately take the lead with a brilliant move around the outside of Moss and Jamison at the first corner and maintain it for the duration of the 10 lap race, all the way to the chequered flag.

“Race two was near perfect,” said Ollie. “The team got the car spot on and I made sure that I made a good start which allowed me to overtake Moss and Jamison at the first corner. Once that part of the job was done and I had pulled a gap, I only pushed as hard as I needed to maintain the lead and make sure I did enough to control the pace for the remainder of the race. Everyone at Motaworld did a fantastic job again this weekend and I am looking forward to being back out with them again at Macau in November, when hopefully we will do it all again.”

Team Boss Alan Waite said: “Ollie did a fantastic job this weekend and didn’t put a foot wrong. The team had never been here before but once we got the right setup there was no stopping him. I think Ollie and the team felt that they had something to prove before the end of the year and we are certainly doing that. We are all over the moon with our performance at the moment and looking forward to our next race in Macau next month”.

Ollie will head out to Brazil next week for his next race with Atlantic Racing Team (ART) in the Formula BMW Americas series, support race to the final round of the Formula 1 World Championship at Sao Paulo on 1st/2nd November.

To follow Ollie’s progress visit his website at www.olliemillroy.com. This website is updated with all the latest news and images throughout the year and if you would like to receive further information, copyright free images or to request an interview with Ollie, please contact Caroline Ford or Ollie at olliemillroyracing@hotmail.co.uk.