Solihull racer becomes Winter Cup vice-champion
Monday 9 November 2009: Solihull’s Nick Yelloly has become the
vice-champion in the 2009 Michelin Formula Renault UK Winter Cup
Series at Rockingham this weekend. The 18 year-old, driving for the
Silverstone-based Hitech Junior Team, added a podium finish and fourth
place to his results from Snetterton last time out, to finish
runner-up in the four-race series.
expecting it after the season we’d had so to finish right up there
with two podiums and two additional top six positions from four rounds
is pretty good,” said Nick. “It sets us up well for next season and I
should start as one of the favourites for the main championship.” Nick was once again among the pace-setters in Friday’s test sessions
ahead of the final two rounds of the series. In Saturday morning’s
qualifying session, which would determine the grid for both rounds,
the Montpelier Group-backed driver posted the third and fourth
quickest times to give him a second row start for the two races. Race one, scheduled for 15 laps, got underway at lunchtime on Saturday
and a poor getaway from pole-sitter Harry Tincknell allowed Nick to
get the jump, surging ahead and following his team-mate Marlon
Stockinger past. As the pack filed into the hairpin, Nick lost third
to Tincknell but minutes later the safety car was deployed following
an incident. After two laps the race restarted and Nick briefly lost a place to
Thomas Hylkema. However the Briton was in no mood to relinquish a
potential podium finish and retook the place at the hairpin, before
closing down the gap to third-placed Tincknell. Over the closing laps,
Nick’s rapid race pace also earned him the second fastest lap of the
race. Race two kicked off later that afternoon and saw Nick line up fourth.
At the lights he got the jump on his team-mate Stockinger, to slot
into third place at the end of the opening lap. However the race was
short-lived after a collision brought out the safety car and later,
the red flag, bringing the scheduled 15 lap race to a premature
finish. The race was restarted after a brief delay and held over seven laps
with the grid being taken from the finishing positions from the first
half of the race. Off the line, Nick made another good start to
maintain third and over the course of the race, he pushed Tincknell
ahead, his second podium finish enough to give him the
vice-championship.
