Hampshire motor racing star David Epton enjoyed an excellent return to competitive action at Thruxton over the weekend, 5th/6th May, the 25-year-old deservedly named ‘THB Clowes Driver of the Day’ in recognition of an outstanding performance during the sixth round of the 2007 Formula Renault UK Championship.

Marking David’s first race outing in over half a year, the event served as a timely reminder of the Apotex Scorpio Motorsport star’s fantastic racecraft and ability as he produced a brace of typically storming drives in both of the weekend’s races.

Supported by key sponsors Universal Weather & Aviation Inc and Imperial Jet for his welcome return to action, David’s vast experience paid dividends for the Apotex Scorpio squad as he helped the team improve the handling of their cars between Saturday’s two qualifying sessions and Sunday’s pair of races.

Starting round five from 10th on the grid, David made a fair getaway and immediately challenged Ryuji Yamamoto on the run through Allard. Into lap two, the Japanese driver tried to make things difficult for the Apotex Scorpio ace with some stern defence, resulting in David having to back-out of his planned overtaking manoeuvre.

Unfortunately this allowed Ryan Borthwick to attempt his own attack on David which ended up with the now Preston-based driver forced into a spin at the complex following contact. Recovering in last position, David mounted a stirring comeback drive and by lap nine he was back inside the top 10.

Pressing on for the remaining six laps, David gained more places as he lapped within just two 10ths of a second of race-winner Dean Smith’s fastest lap and on the 14th tour he passed Jeremy Metcalfe for seventh position where he would remain to the flag.

An outstanding result, particularly considering his fight-back through the order from last place, the Apotex Scorpio sensation equalled the seventh place finish in round six with a similarly impressive performance and was also named ‘THB Clowes Driver of the Day’ by Renault Sport UK for his efforts.

Lining up in 12th position on the grid for the weekend’s second encounter, David shone brightly once again to underline his single-seater credentials – another action-packed drive seeing him take the chequered flag just two seconds adrift of team-mate Will Bratt who started the race five positions higher.

“It’s been a good weekend and I think a couple of top seven finishes is pretty good considering we haven’t raced since last October”, commented David, “It’s been great to be back in the car and although qualifying wasn’t the result we had hoped for, we made some changes for the races which worked nicely.

“To set the fourth fastest race lap, within two 10ths of a second of (Dean) Smith, during our first race back was particularly pleasing and I think we showed the sort of job we’d be capable of doing if we compete in any more Formula Renault races this year.”

David added: “Our car wasn’t perfect this weekend but Tony (Trevor) and Jon (Pettitt) did a great job and it was good to be back working with the team. I’ve enjoyed being back out there, had we qualified more strongly I’m confident we could have made a decent push for the podium in at least one of the races.”

Returning to his day job as a graduate accountant manager with BAe Systems, David will also continue in his attempts to secure the necessary funding to further his racing career. Still hoping to graduate into European competition, a variety of options are being considered and more selected outings in Formula Renault UK remain a possibility.

Subject to acquiring the necessary budget, offers are currently on the table for David to make further appearances this year with Apotex Scorpio and there is also an invitation to contest selected International Formula Master rounds.