Croft was the venue for the final two rounds of the Formula Renault UK winter series, following just one week after the two previous rounds held at Brands Hatch in Kent.



Jon tested on the Thursday and Friday before race day on Saturday with his Team AKA Lemac outfit headed by Andrew Kirkcaldy, and where he joined his two team-mates for the day, Brazilian Adriano Buzaid, and fellow karting graduate Adam Christodoulou. It was in fact quite an interesting line-up on the grid for the North Yorkshire races, with a number of Jon's former karting rivals making the move into the winter series.



Race day was very cold and windy, and with a very low sun just above the horizon, vision for both spectators and drivers was difficult when looking in the 'wrong' direction. The track was also quite damp and slippy for the opening practice session, and it soon became clear that the later a driver was able to set his qualifying lap, the faster s/he would be as the track continued to dry out.



All was going well for Jon until, with around seven minutes of the session remaining when he was comfortably setting times inside the top six, the red flag appeared. Several drivers made changes, but with Jon going fourth quickest on the re-start, it looked good until the chequered flag appeared, with Jon being one of the first drivers to receive it. Those who just slipped onto another lap before the flag appeared suddenly went quicker still and Jon plummeted down the qualifying order. His race engineer on the pit wall,
receiving pit board instructions, was caught by surprise when told Jon had slipped from fourth to 14th, and asked for confirmation before giving his young 'charge' the message. Fortunately in an opportune piece of damage limitation, Jon's final lap time of 1:25.483 was sufficient to leave him on grid 10 for the first final of the day. Overall though given his pace until that final lap, Jon was disappointed with the outcome.



"It was unfortunate," he said, "because I lost 3/10ths at Sunny, and then another 3/10ths with a small mistake at the hairpin. I reckon but for that, or even with an extra lap, I could have set a time close to pole position, bearing in mind I was only 6/10ths away from pole!"



Just as h had done at Brands Hatch Jon demonstrated that he had developed an excellent starting technique. The moment the lights changed he was away to a superb start, storming through to an excellent sixth position by the end of the opening lap. And there he stayed until lap four. "There is not much you can do when somebody decides to take you off the track, is there? That Yank should have stayed at home and gone oval racing instead. It's all they can do properly", he said with some disgust. Jon was able to re-start his Team AKA Lemac car, but he was unhappy with the way it felt after the 'off'. "It was under-steering badly", he said, "and I'm just not sure what the problem was, but it does not feel right".



During the build-up to the second final, the ever darkening skies gave way to a deluge that flooded the pit lane and track, which would certainly mean that visibility once the rain got underway would be appalling. But yet again Jon made another outstanding start from grid 11 this time, reaching a top six spot before the limitations of his car became clear in the poor conditions. "It was just like driving on ice", he said, as he demonstrated full lock steering movements with his arms when back in the pits after the race. "There was nothing I could do and the car just would not steer into a corner". Undeterred, Jon had persevered, and even after a safety car period and two grassy moments when the car simply under-steered off the track, Jon made sure he brought his wayward mount home to the chequered flag.



A bent floor tray was later discovered after the race, so this would have gone some way to explain Jon's problem in the wet conditions, but nevertheless, it was frustrating for everyone in the team.

Jon now has a trip to Macau this week, before returning to test at Albacete in Spain, when more news of his 2007 season should become a little clearer.

The statistics for the day can be viewed here.