Seb Morris showcased his potential on the track in front of a home crowd as he claimed a maiden win in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup (NEC) at Silverstone at the weekend.
Morris, 18, a former pupil at Abbey Gate College, Chester, got his campaign up an running following a difficult start on Sunday, claiming a superb lights-to-flag triumph in round four of the NEC to move him up to third in the overall standings.
Bouncing back impressively from a problematic opening weekend of the season at Monza in Italy last month, the Marford racer concluded his home drive inside the coveted championship top three and just five points shy of second place.
“We’ve had so much bad luck so far this year, I’m so pleased it’s turned – it’s absolutely fantastic to get the win”, said Morris, who drives for the Fortec Motorsport team.
“The season starts now for us, even with a bad first few races we can still go on from here and challenge for the championship. We’re definitely back in contention, we just need to focus now and get the most from the car.
“I wanted to change the car quite dramatically between Saturday and Sunday to help make the rear tyres stay with us and to make the car more predictable. The car was unbelievable, the set-up we had for the second race is what we need for the rest of the season.”
Qualifying on pole position for the second of the weekend’s two encounters by 0.4 seconds, after conquering the tricky wet conditions which blighted the first couple of days, the Caterham Racing Academy driver controlled race two from the front despite intense pressure.
Making a good launch, Morris darted across to the right-hand side of the track to defend the inside line from Fortec team-mate Ben Barnicoat and went on to build an advantage of 1.4 seconds by the start of lap five.
Although Callan O’Keeffe closed in during the second half of the race, Seb maintained his composure and was able to pick the lines he wanted while keeping the South African at arm’s length. Taking the chequered flag on lap 13 half a second ahead, Morris crossed the line punching air.driver was absolutely elated as he crossed the line punching the air.
In the wet third round on Saturday, an unfortunate spin for Morris at mid-distance while dicing for position prevented what looked set to be a potential top six finish – although 14th position still delivered some important points for the championship standings.
Next on the 2014 Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup schedule is a visit to the world-famous Hockenheim circuit in Germany in three weeks time over the weekend of June 14/15.
