Charlie Hand reaches out as maiden victory gets closer

He was third quickest after qualifying for the first race, which left him lining up on the more favourable right of the circuit, directly behind Lewis Saunders.

But it was roles reversed for the second race, as Charlie snatched pole position. “I had a couple of small handling issues to investigate but happy to have pole of course and with my consistency in a difficult session,” said the Crawley teenager.

“When I tried to follow Lewis though he shook me off, but I think I towed him around as I couldn’t shake him off,” he added.

At the initial start Hand was in third place behind Saunders and Alex Solley, but a red flag stoppage took them back to the grid after a first corner incident.

He managed to outgun Solley from the restart but their duel allowed Saunders to get away. As the pressure continued to build, it finally told at Tower on the seventh lap.

“Both of my starts had been fairly good and I had initially stuck with Lewis. But then I got a tap and had to defend and he was gone,” he said.

“I had hit a kerb quite hard at the chicane, lost some momentum and had understeer, so Alex had a run and got by,” he added.

Although the places had exchanged, Solley was now the one under pressure, but there were no more gaps over the final two laps and Hand had to settle for third.

“I had lost some pace and had to concentrate hard on my race and making sure I finished. I did get by Alex, but had to drop back again as I hadn’t seen the yellow flags at first,” he admitted.

Hopes were high starting from pole in race two and his start gave him the lead until red flags intervened again.

The restart was somewhat confusing, “it was awful and annoying when the lights didn’t go out at first and I was down to third behind Saunders and Solley after that,” he said.

He quickly retook second through the chicane and once clear began to edge towards Saunders’ lead. “By the time I had got Alex, Lewis had gone again, but I chipped away and was careful where there was oil down,” he added.

The gap came down to 0.795 secs by the time the chequered flag came out.

“I have to be happy with that, two good finishes and points in the championship,” he concluded after securing the fastest lap of the race too.

Charlie would to thank Westbourne Motorsport for the car preparation and driver coaching.

The next race for the Championship is at Brands Hatch on August 1 and 2.

********

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.