Posted: 03 May 2012

Josh's Formula Renault NEC campaign got off to a good start with a podium in the second of the weekend's three races.

The first round of the Formula Renault NEC series kicked off on the 19th April in Hockenheim with a 39 car field which included Josh's Fortec Motorsport team who elected to enter it's drivers in the NEC series after the Formula Renault UK 2.0 series was cancelled due to insufficient entries.

Qualifying went reasonable well for Josh, he qualified in eighth place for the first race just 1.18 seconds off Stoffel Vandoorne's pole time of 1:40.278 and was the fastest of the Fortec runners. Qualifying 2 was a similar story with Josh in eighth again but now only 1.034 seconds behind Vandoorne's pole time of 1:38.368. However fellow Fortec racers Jake Dennis and Shahaan Engineer were second and third respectively.

Race 1 started dry and all 39 cars got away with accident. Second placed Pierre Gasly took Vandoorne's lead at the first corner but the Belgian driver retook the lead on the third lap. Half way through the race the rain began to fall and quickly claimed it's first victims. Gasly missed his breaking point at the Spitzkehre and hit Pieter Schothorst and Josh Hill who was battling Schothorst for third place. All three cars would take no further part in the race. The safety car was deployed to cover the recovery of the stricken cars and then hail began to fall and the race was stopped for 10 minutes as the cars fitted rain tyres. Vandoorne went on to win the race ahead of Jordan King and Jake Dennis.

Race 2 saw second placed starter Jake Dennis challenge polesitter Vandoorne for the lead at the first corner but could not pull away as a first lap accident which eliminated David Freiburghaus, Christof von Gruningen and Victor Colome's cars caused a safety car period for three laps. Dennis kept the lead at the restart and was joined on the podium by Andrea Pizzitola and Josh who climbed up from eighth to take the last podium position. Vandoorne finished nineteenth after a shocker of a race.

Race 3's grid was determined by the results of Race 1 with the top 6 finishers reversed. This meant Hill started 38th with Jeroen Slaghekke on pole. Kevin Kleveros took the lead at the start however but his lead was short lived when race control stopped the race as the heavens opened. The cars lined up on the grid for a 10 minute stoppage but at the restart Josh's car would not start and he took no further part in the race. Pizzitola took the lead but was soon passed by Vandoorne and then Jake Dennis. Vandoorne took the win followed by Dennis and Pizzitola. Jake Dennis leads the championship on 74 points ahead of Vandoorne on 62 and Pizzitola on 61 points.

The next race weekend is at the Nurburgring, starting on the 21st June.

Labels: Kevin Kleveros, Jeroen Slaghekke, Jordan King, Pieter Schothorst, Pierre Gasly, Stoffel Vandoorne , Formula Renault NEC, Hockenheim, Joshua Hill, Shahaan Engineer, Jake Dennis, David Freiburghaus, Christof von Gruningen, Victor Colome,

Posted by Mike at 03/05/2012.

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Posted: 21 March 2012

The 2012 Certina Formula Renault 2.0 Championship has been cancelled due to a low number of entrants.

With only 6 drivers confirmed for the 2012 season the Formula Renault 2.0 Championship of Great Britain has been cancelled. Josh Webster, Josh Hill, Shahaan Engineer, Dan de Zille, Gabriel Casagrande and Jake Dennis were the only entrants with Fortec running 4 of those, Hill, Engineer, Dennis and de Zille. Fortec Motorsport have confirmed they will be racing in the Formula Renault Northern European Cup in 2012 instead and will take part in the second official pre-season test at Hockenheim on Thursday. Josh has confirmed he will be testing in Hockenheim but Fortec have yet to officially confirm their driver line-up for the NEC series. Josh said:

"Testing at Hockenheim this week and evaluating possible options but the short story is that, no matter what, I WILL be driving this year in single seaters. Thanks all for your continued support!"

Dan Wells was also looking to join the Formula Renault 2.0 UK series this year after a determined effort to raise the necessary budget through an online fund-raising campaign promoted on Twitter and persuading the Waitrose store where he worked to let him park a Formula Renault car in the car park to help him raise the money. Wells said:

"I was disappointed, although not surprised, to hear of Formula Renault UK’s cancellation this year. I was struggling to raise the budget to get on the grid and was unable to confirm my participation in the championship – and this task was made even harder once testing began and only 5/6 cars were participating. Obviously my aim was to be Formula Renault UK Champion in 2012 but it now looks like no one is going to achieve this goal unfortunately. It is tough to raise a budget in the UK at the moment but I hope to be able to announce a program soon.”

Labels: Josh Webster, Josh Hill, Shahaan Engineer, Dan de Zille, Gabriel Casagrande, Jake Dennis, Formula Renault 2.0, Formula Renault NEC, Dan Wells,

Posted by Mike at 21/03/2012.

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Posted: 26 February 2012

Josh appears in the March edition of F1 Racing magazine in the "This Boy Can Drive" section showcasing new racing talent.

Labels: F1 Racing, Joshua Hill,

Posted by Mike at 26/02/2012.

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Posted: 14 February 2012

Josh took part in the final rounds of the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand last weekend.

Qualifying for this weekend's races was a slightly different affair with the grid for race one being decided by the overall best time in sessions 1 and 2 and the grid for race 3 decided by the average of sessions 1, 2 and 3. There was also a "superpole" segment in session 3 where drivers must do a maximum of 5 laps in one unbroken stint. Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy and Hannes van Asseldonk filled the top 3 places for both race 1 and 3 with Josh in seventh for both races. The grid for race 2 is decided by the finishing order of race 1 with the first 6 places reversed.

Race 1, the Dan Higgins Trophy,  was dominated by former GP3 driver Mitch Evans who lead from lights to flag, finishing with a 6 second margin over second placed van Asseldonk. van Asseldonk squeezed Cassidy to the edge of the track on the first corner and was just ahead as the approached the esses and Cassidy had to back out and spent the rest of the race stuck to van Asseldonk's gearbox. Josh fought his way up to 5th, thirteen seconds off the leader and 4 seconds behind fourth placed Lucas Auer.

Race 2, the sprint race, on Sunday morning was won by Felix Serralles who started from pole alongside Josh in second and Lucas Auer in third. Mitch Evans fought his way up from sixth to pass Josh and take second. Nick Cassidy came home fifth with van Asseldonk retiring which meant Cassidy scored enough points to win the Championship.

Race 3 was the 35 lap New Zealand Grand Prix and Evans lead away from pole position, chased hard by Cassidy and van Asseldonk. Lucas Auer and Josh were fighting for fourth when Hill's radiator was holed and he had to retire. Mitch Evans built up a small lead over Cassidy and looked to have the win in the back when with seven laps to go his car spluttered on the start / finish straight and ground to a halt at the Lexus esses. Cassidy shot past to take the lead and the win with van Asseldonk in second and Auer in third.

Cassidy won the title, scoring 914 points, with van Asseldonk second on 738, Damon Leitch on 633 and Josh finished fourth with 629 points followed by Jordan King on 591.

Josh has also been confirmed at Fortec Motorsport for the 2012 British Formula Renault 2.0 season. He will race alongside Jake Dennis and Dan de Zille. The first round is at Brands Hatch between March 31st and April 1st supporting the BTCC. Sunday's races will be shown live on ITV4.

Labels: Lucas Auer, Hannes van Asseldonk, Nick Cassidy, Mitch Evans, Jake Dennis, Dan de Zille, Joshua Hill, Manfeild, Toyota Racing Series, Felix Serralles, Damon Leitch, Jordan King,

Posted by Mike at 14/02/2012.

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Posted: 08 February 2012

A big accident puts Josh out of Race 2 at Hampton Downs but bounces back with a strong points finish.

Mitch Evans took pole in a closely fought first qualifying session on Saturday ahead of series leader Nick Cassidy. Josh ended up in seventh, just 4 tenths of pole and behind fellow Brit Jordan King. The top 13 drivers were all seperated by less than 1 second. Felix Serralles was handed a 3 place penalty for causing a red flag which put him at the back of the grid and did not start race 1. Evans and Cassidy again took the top 2 slots in qualifying for race 3 where the drivers' grid positions are determined by the average of their best 2 laps in the qualifying sessions. Josh started in eighth with Jordan King in fifth.

Evans lead from lights to flag in race 1, followed by Hannes van Asseldonk who muscled past Cassidy at the start and never gave up the place, setting the lap record as tried to stay with Evans. Josh finished seventh. The only other notable drive was from Lucas Auer who passed Jordan King and Raffaele Marciello to take fourth place. King's sixth place finish meant he started on pole for race 2.

Race 2 was a disaster for many drivers, including Josh Hill after a turn one shunt put him, Mitch Evans, Sheban Siddiqi and Nathanaël Berthon out the race. Ferrari Academy driver Rafaello Marciello took the win ahead of Lucas Auer and Jordan King.

Race 3 saw Cassidy regain his winning form as Mitch Evans and van Asseldonk chased him to the flag. van Asseldonk was up to second at the start but Evans re-passed as the race was resumed after a safety car period caused by Bruno Bonnifacio leaving the track at the second turn. Cassidy built his lead over Evans to over a minute but a series of determined laps by Evans cut the gap down to just 0.4 seconds but Evans was unable to find a way past. Dmitry Suranovich went off track with 8 laps to go and the safety car was deployed again as his car was recovered. At the resumption of green flag racing Cassidy sped away from Evans and built up a lead of just over a second that Evans just couldn't reduce in the remaining laps. Damon Leitch and Jono Lester had a dramatic smash together on the last lap but Lester managed to keep his car in one piece and get back on track whilst Leitch's suspension was smashed after spinning through the air. Josh kept his head throughout the race and came home in a strong fourth place.

The final round of the series takes place this weekend at Manfeild. Nick Cassidy remains the series leader going in to the final races with 730 points ahead of Hannes van Asseldonk (604), Damon Leitch (571) and Josh Hill (520). Josh needs to win all 3 races to take the title with Cassidy scoring no more than 15 points.

P.S. The comments system is now fixed so feel free to comment!

Labels: Jono Lester, Damon Leitch, Lucas Auer, Raffaele Marciello, Hannes van Asseldonk, Joshua Hill, Hampton Downs, Toyota Racing Series, Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Jordan King, Sheban Siddiqi, Nathanaël Berthon,

Posted by Mike at 08/02/2012.

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