RISING star Alex Lynn is raring to go for his second season in the Formula Renault UK Championship, which kicks off at Brands Hatch this weekend.

In his first full season of car racing, 17-year-old Dunmow racer Lynn won the 2010 Formula Renault Graduate Cup for young rookie drivers, then took his first three outright race wins on his way to claiming the Formula Renault Winter Cup title.

He kept active by contesting the highly-competitive Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand, in which he claimed a race win against an experienced international field.

Pre-season Formula Renault testing has gone extremely well with Alex first or second at seven of the eight test days.

Alex, who remains with Fortec Motorsport, said: “We wanted to put ourselves in this situation and I’m happy and confident that we can be competitive straightaway. I’ve got faith in myself and the team, and the car’s performance is really good.

“Since this time last year, when I was getting set for my first season, the car has improved massively and my driving has been brought onto a whole new level. The car is set up exactly right for me, and every little part of the team has got a lot better.”

Lynn also sees only positives in being paired with hotly-tipped karting graduate Oliver Rowland within the Fortec stable – both are being engineered this season by team manager Russell Dixon.

“We are working really well together,” he said. “We push each other on and, because we’ve got the same engineer, we can talk a lot about the set-up of the car.”

Fortec team owner Richard Dutton added: “Alex has really come on and he should have a very good year. He’s growing all the time. I’m very pleased with his progress and he’ll be hard to beat.”

The Formula Renault UK Championship again forms part of the hugely popular British Touring Car Championship package, which is screened live on ITV4.