Adrian Quaife-Hobbs’ bid to retain his T Car crown got off to the best possible start, with double victory in the opening two rounds at Snetterton yesterday. The 15 year-old from Tonbridge, Kent, made history last year by becoming the youngest ever winner of an MSA-sanctioned car racing championship.

Now the teenager, who attends Sackville School, takes an early lead in the 20-round 2006 championship following two dominant wins at the Norfolk track. Starting both races from pole position, Adrian narrowly missed out on a clean sweep, by also securing fastest lap, a new lap record, in the second of the two races, to pick up a vital additional point.

The event started well for the teenager, whose PR Motorsport-prepared Quaife-backed car once again proved the car to have. Not even a wheel-bearing problem in Thursday’s free practice could shake the youngster and come official qualifying on Saturday morning, he posted the quickest time, by nearly half a second to line up on the number one spot.

Come race one, Adrian made a good getaway to take an immediate lead and throughout the 11 laps, he was chased by Jolyon Palmer, the second-place driver capitalising on the tow supplied by the leader. But the champion was in no mood to allow him through and held off throughout the race to take his 14th T Car victory.

Race two again had him on pole, his second quickest time in qualifying enough to secure him the coveted position and at the lights he made one of his now customary lightening starts. With the others fighting for position behind, he was able to make the break early on and not even a restart following a red flag incident could deter him. At the restart another good start saw him retain the lead and thereafter he pulled away to a comfortable margin, taking the flag seven seconds ahead of Palmer.

Adrian was understandably delighted with the result, which puts his bid to become the only driver to win back-to-back T Car titles, very much on course.

“I’m really happy with the results of the weekend,” he said.

“We had a slight problem with a wheel bearing in testing but after that, the car was great. In race one, Jo (Palmer) managed to keep in my slipstream pretty much the whole race but I was able to keep him behind me. In race two, I was able to get the break much earlier and pull away and when the race was restarted, I took up the pole spot again. At the lights, I made a better start and just managed to pull away and get a new lap record in the process.”

Adrian’s next two rounds of the junior saloon car series for 14-17 year-olds will take place at his home track of Brands Hatch in three weeks time.

Results of Race 1 – 11 laps

1.	Adrian Quaife Hobbs	PR Motorsport	15:02.622
2.	Jolyon Palmer	PalmerSport Junior	15:03.308
3.	Oliver Webb	PR Motorsport	15:11.553
4.	Luciano Bachetta	PalmerSport Junior	15:11.603
5.	Daniel Laddiman	Team Ladders	15:11.971
6.	Max Chilton	Tomax Motorsport	15:13.936

Fastest lap:

Oliver Webb

1:20.862sec 86.90mph (139.85kph)

Results of Race 2 – 8 laps