Scott Malvern: Champion Again!
Oct 11, 2012
What a great weekend! When you have good times in motor racing you have to savour and enjoy the moment as much as you can. Winning is why we all do it. It becomes habit forming. The more you win, the more you want to win! It’s an appetite that can never be satisfied.
When I entered the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship at the very last minute back in April I didn’t even know if I’d be doing the full series. It wasn’t really the championship that most people expected to see me sign up for. But it was very important for me to stay active, race sharp and in the shop window. This game can be very cruel and it can be a case of “out of sight, out of mind”.
At the end of last year I expected to be entering the FIA F2 championship. I had a good offer on the table and with experience of the car was confident of doing a good job. But as we know, nothing can ever be taken for granted and when the deal collapsed it looked like I would be left high & dry. That was until Patrick Cullen and his brand new Cullen Motorsport outfit came to me with an offer at the 11th hour.
These are tough times for motosport in the UK, particularly single-seater racing. But if you have the right product and the right niche then you can buck the trend and that is most definitely what the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship has done this year. To be fair it’s been strong for a few seasons now but it’s really hit a peak this year and the great thing is there has been quality as well as great quantity. An amazing full grid of 32 cars were entered at the BTCC support round finale on the Silverstone National circuit last weekend and because of the great popularity of the BTCC we had an amazingly large spectator crowd in attendance to show off in front of and live TV coverage which pulled a viewing figure in the hundreds of thousands. Truly amazing!
Reports of the two races are well documented elsewhere so I won’t quote them chapter and verse again here but I will say how much I enjoyed the weekend. On reflection I did not get the best out of the car in qualifying, partly due to set up and partly due to me not getting myself track position on a very busy circuit and also the rapid evolution of the track which, especially in qualifying session one, was changing every lap as it was drying so quickly. But everyone’s times were incredibly close and though I would have liked to have been higher up the grid than my brace of 4th places I was still confident, but not complacent, that I could get the job done from there.
