SV Racing (SVR) is prepared to kick-start its season with some strong results in the opening rounds of the 2015 Renault UK Clio Cup and Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup on the globally-renowned Brands Hatch Indy circuit over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend (4-5 April).
The Wettenhall, Cheshire-based outfit had a superlative maiden season under the sole leadership of former BTCC racer Danny Buxton in 2014, securing the UK Clio Cup Team’s title and finishing runner-up in both the Ginetta GT4 Supercup and UK Clio Cup Drivers’ standings.
SVR enters the 2015 fray at Brands Hatch with a near all-new driver line-up, including last season’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) driver Jack Clarke and Ginetta Junior Champion Jack Mitchell.
Accumulating 11 podium finishes – winning six of the opening eight rounds – in the 2014 Ginetta Junior Championship, Mitchell has been testing extensively with SVR over the winter months, showing a great turn of speed, and notably matching the pole position time from last year’s round at Donington Park in the East Midlands.
Mitchell dominated the opening round of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Brands Hatch last season and the West Kingsdown, Kent driver is excited to be racing door handle-to-door handle against his rivals, but remains grounded on what is achievable in unfamiliar machinery.
“It’s a big jump from a rear-wheel-driven Ginetta G40s to a front-wheel-drive Clio Cup car, but I have been testing a lot with SV Racing over the winter months and feel as prepared as I can be,” said Mitchell. “The SVR guys have been really welcoming and have helped me fully understand the car. I now feel I’ve got to grips with it, so fingers crossed I can reward them with a strong finish this weekend.
“Having already raced within the BTCC support package, I am familiar with how close the racing is. Obviously I’d love a race victory, but, being realistic, a top six finish would be great, as it’s my first competitive weekend in the championship. I’m excited to get out there and show the spectators what I can do.”
Returning for his fourth consecutive season in the UK Clio Cup – Britain’s premier one-make championship – is Litchfield’s Ant Whorton-Eales, who set the pace in the championship’s recent official pre-season test with a time that was almost a second and a half under the lap record at Rockingham Motor Speedway.
Esteemed club racer Ben Seyfried will pilot another of the team’s title-winning Clios. The Super Mighty Minis Champion and Fun Cup Vice Champion has frequented the UK’s most famous racetracks for more than a quarter of a century and will line-up alongside this weekend’s ‘celebrity car’, driven by Emmerdale’s Kelvin Fletcher.
Switching from his 38-inch tractor rims to the Clio’s 17-inch Dunlop slicks, the actor who plays Andy Sugden in ITV’s hit soap Emmerdale, is the first of several celebrities to pilot SV Racing’s fourth and final fourth-generation Clio.
Fletcher is an avid motorsport fan and contested sporadic rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB last season, taking a best sixth position at ‘The Home of British Motor Racing,’ Silverstone.
Spearheading SVR’s Ginetta GT4 SuperCup campaign is BTCC racer Clarke. The Effingham, Surrey-based racer took the fight to the established frontrunners en route to claiming a podium in the season finale on Brands Hatch’s extended Grand Prix configuration in torrential rain and is eager to ‘make an impact’ on the headlining BTCC support package in his Crabbie’s-liveried Ginetta G55.
“You can’t question SV Racing’s knowledge and expertise, and the TOCA (BTCC) package is undoubtedly the place to be in terms of exposure and showcasing your ability in front of the right people. The calibre of drivers signed up to the Ginetta GT4 SuperCup is tremendously high, and there will be no shortage of quick pedallers I can reference myself against. This championship always produces a strong field, and it will inevitably be very tough at the top.
“That means there’s absolutely no room for complacency, and I’m aware that having enjoyed a positive conclusion to my BTCC season last year, expectations will be fairly high and the pressure will be on to produce results. I’ll obviously need to get to grips with the car and the championship too, but I have a great team behind me, some fantastic partners on-board and we all share a common objective – to go out there and win races.”
Lining-up alongside Clarke is Mitchell Hale, who returns to racing for the first time since his last foray in the 2010 BARC Formula Renault Championship, when he finished runner-up in the Drivers’ standings.
The talented 21-year old Bristol-based driver first laid his hands on a Kart at the age of 13, where he beat the likes of Red Bull Racing Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat and Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz Junior.
Filling the third and final Ginetta G55 is Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s Stephen Young, whose on-track exploits in Formula Renault and the British Formula First Championship were combined with roles as a Racing Instructor at Brands Hatch, before his racing took him on an extraordinary journey to far-flung corners of the globe, such as Japan, the USA and South Africa.
Saturday’s (4 April) programme begins with Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup qualifying at 9.00, while the first of three races is scheduled to take place at 14.15. The next two encounters will be held at 10.05 and 16.20 on Sunday (5 April).
Renault UK Clio Cup qualifying is scheduled for 12.05 and the first race at 17.05 on Saturday, and the cars will return to the circuit for the second and final clash of the weekend at 15.40 on Sunday.
For more information on SV Racing, please visit the www.svracing.co.ukwebsite, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page or follow @SV_Racing on Twitter and Instagram.