Iranian star endures baptism of snow at Brands

Iranian single-seater star Kourosh Khani may have been expecting a baptism of fire, but he was presented with more of a baptism of snow on his Formula Renault BARC debut at Brands Hatch – though he handled the experience with seasoned aplomb.

The 18-year-old – the first of his countrymen to come over to the UK in an effort to further his fledgling career in the sport when he made the trip across alone in August, 2006 – qualified 12th for his first outing around the challenging Kent circuit, and eighth for the second in a field of some 29 competitors. He would go on to convert those positions into a brace of top ten finishes – in seventh and eighth places respectively – in the races.

“I hadn’t had a lot of practice,” he admitted, “and I had a big crash the week before. That meant I missed two days of testing, and had only had two days with the car at Brands Hatch before the meeting. Bearing all that in mind, it was incredible that it all went so well.

“In qualifying I was quite surprised by my times. I managed to take about a second off my best practice time – that was quite impressive.

“Obviously it was my first time starting a race in front of so many people. It was a new experience, and very exciting. It was quite nerve-wracking too, though, because I hadn’t practised any starts before – I just had to hope it would go well.

“I didn’t have a good start in race one and a few people got past me, leaving me down in 16th. Then they red-flagged the race, and I started again from 16th and finished seventh.”

What’s more, in typically unpredictable British fashion, race two witnessed the first time the Welch Motorsport, International Test Team-backed ace had raced in the snow, which he acknowledged afterwards had been something of a novel experience for him.

“It was my first time driving in the snow,” he explained, “and it did snow pretty heavily. That made it even more surprising that I finished the race inside the top ten and scored points in those conditions. I had never seen snow like that before in England…”

Indeed, Khani does not have a great deal of racing experience under his belt full stop, making his achievements at Brands Hatch all-the-more noteworthy. With his uncle owning a karting circuit back home in Iran – a country not renowned for its motorsport heritage – he competed in the category from a young age, but prior to his arrival on British shores that was about the sum of it.

Taking the time to learn English – to such an extent that he is now fluent – the man from Mashhad, in the north-east of Iran, enlisted in a week’s intensive course at Silverstone, and at the end of the week participated in two Formula First races. He won the opening one, and incredibly finished runner-up in the second despite suffering a puncture. He then went on to finish third in a Formula Ford race, still behind the wheel of Formula First, ahead of all his fellow Formula First rivals and all but two of the Formula Ford drivers. The rest, really, is history.

“I came here to progress my career,” Kourosh recounted. “I realised I was good at driving back in Iran. A lot of my family are into racing, and I got some basic tuition at my uncle’s track.

“I came over to London and took an intensive course at Silverstone in September, 2006. I passed my ARDS test and was told I was the best student in the class.”

Between then and now the teenager took part in a handful of Formula Ford events in the UK, triumphing in the Scholarship Class at Thruxton of all places – the fastest and most fearsome track in the country. In addition to that display of bravery, he competed at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, grand prix circuits both.

He has also participated in some Global GT racing, twice finishing up on the rostrum in the ‘Sports and Saloons’ category during the inaugural Power Nights meeting at Silverstone last summer and – more unusually – holds the world record for jumping cars in a Dune Buggy too.

“I want to score as many points as possible,” he said when questioned about his goals for the remainder of the Formula Renault BARC campaign – in which he currently sits ninth in the points standings – as he eyes a move up into either British F3 or onto the TOCA package in 2009. “The races at Brands Hatch were difficult due to my lack of experience, but by the end of the second race I had set the fifth-quickest lap. The more experience I get, the better my lap times will become.

“This year the championship is very competitive, but I hope to be able to learn a lot and progress to a higher level. If you look at the way things went in my first race without much prior practice, if I can just get a bit more racecraft under my belt I think a win is far from impossible. Nothing is impossible.”

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