MANOR COMPETITION PRODUCES YET ANOTHER McLAREN AUTOSPORT WINNER

Legendary Formula Renault UK team Manor Competition has once again proven its position as the premier squad in the championship after seeing its 2009 champion driver, Dean Smith, win the 21st McLaren Autosport BRDC Award on Sunday, 6th December, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

The Nottinghamshire team, which is owned and run from its New Ollerton premises by Tony and Sarah Shaw, has an enviable and unmatched record of nurturing and producing the very best drivers in Formula Renault UK, 21-year-old Smith the latest in a long line of Manor racers who have gone on to receive the most prestigious award in British motorsport.

Of the last four McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winners to come from Formula Renault UK, all have gone on to receive the accolade after highly successful seasons in Manor colours. Prior to Smith’s outstanding campaign this year, 2008 Vice-Champion Alexander Sims was the recipient of the award.

In 2005, Oliver Jarvis won the Formula Renault UK title for Manor and went on to scoop the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award while a year earlier, Manor racer Paul di Resta received the award and in doing so made history by following in the wheeltracks of his cousin Dario Franchitti - the current Indycar Champion - who claimed the accolade in 1992.

After graduating from Manor’s Formula Renault UK ranks, Sims went on to excel during his maiden season of Formula 3 Euroseries action this year while Jarvis and di Resta are both now seasoned campaigners in the high profile German ‘DTM’ series - the latter also recently impressing during a ‘young driver’ Formula One test session at Jerez, Spain, with the Force India F1 Team.

Added to the impressive list of McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winners Manor has produced, the team also steered FIA Formula One World Champions Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton to Formula Renault UK title glory in 2000 and 2003 respectively.

Smith and Manor’s record of consistency throughout 2009 speaks for itself - seven race victories, 15 podiums in total, seven pole position starts, six fastest race laps and a winning margin of 34 points at the end of the campaign - and all with Smith having missed the opening two rounds of the championship!

The season statistics for the partnership not only underline the speed and quality of set-up on the car, they also prove Manor’s stunning level of reliability which is a huge credit to the working practice of every member of the squad and the processes which have been established over many successful years.

Tony and Sarah Shaw represented Manor Competition at this past weekend’s Autosport Awards evening in London and were therefore on hand to share in Smith’s achievement, the team’s second back-to-back awards success in the last six years.

“We’re so pleased for Dean and his entire family, they’re wonderful people and it’s been a pleasure to work with them this year”, said Tony Shaw, “Dean deserved the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award more than anyone else, he was outstanding all season and he and Sarah (Smith’s race engineer) worked so hard to overcome the handicap of missing the first two races.

“After winning the title we were all deliriously happy but being at the award ceremony was every bit as good as winning the championship - it means that much to Manor to see Dean list his name alongside the other great drivers we’ve produced and also other talents such as the current World Champion, Jenson Button (McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner in 1998). Dean has a very bright future.”