JOY quickly turned to despair for Royston s Kieren Clark, who suffered a setback in his latest outing in the Formula Renault BARC series. Clark was in Thruxton for round 11 of the competition, with qualifying immediately before the big race. And it start

JOY quickly turned to despair for Royston's Kieren Clark, who suffered a setback in his latest outing in the Formula Renault BARC series.

Clark was in Thruxton for round 11 of the competition, with qualifying immediately before the big race.

And it started so well for the 18-year-old, who qualified in his highest position of the season after finishing in fourth place with a time only two tenths of a second behind pole position.

However, it was all in vain, because on the green flag lap of the race Clark was forced off the track with no power, and as a result had to sit out with his hopes of a podium finish vanishing with a broken cable.

"I couldn't believe it when the engine died," said a disappointed Clark.

"It's a kick in the stomach for the whole team after doing such a good job in the morning. Now we've just got to look forward to the next race."

Clark returns to action on Saturday, September 29, at Cheshire's Oulton Park track, for what will be his final race of the season.