Rounds 11 & 12 - Croft 20/09/14 - Race Report
An odd weekend of highs and lows to round off a roller coaster of a first season in Michelin Clio Cup Series.
Not only was this the team's first visit to Croft Circuit, Saturday also gave us the first wet qualifying session of the year. The only other time the Clio has been driven in the rain was the media launch day back in April! The changeable conditions saw John qualify forth at the back of a depleted road series grid.
Conditions on Sunday were overcast but, crucially, dry. Race one was, as John described it, "nothing short of total carnage for all involved." With the start format the same as Snetterton the race class launched on the lights and the road class starting on the flag drop after a delay. John's starts have been improving all year and this launch was no exception, quickly turning a forth place start to second position. Pole sitter Luke Pinder had started to open a gap and managed to negotiate around a damaged race class back marker. Just as John was looking to gain some distance from Jake Honour and Nic Harrison, running 3rd and 4th respectively, the smoking race car decided to pull back onto the circuit. Backing off the throttle into Sunny corner to avoid collision was the only option and allowed the chasing cars to close gap.
After two more laps defending heavily Honour made his move up the inside, half way through Sunny corner. Harrison looked to follow Honour through the rapidly disappearing gap as John closed the door. Contact was the result and Harrison limped to the pits with his nearside front wheel at a 45 degree angle. John's Clio has sustained damage to the driver's door, sill, wing and most importantly the steering. With a bent track rod end the Clio's pace was severely affected but still running in third place with over half race distance left to complete. In the closing stages of the race Jake Honour, running second in the road class, was caught in the middle of a three way battle in the race class which resulted in contact. His car was hit from the rear, put onto the grass, spun and then collected by another race class car causing extensive damage to the front end. John continued to nurse the car home to claim second place.
This weekend was unusual as both races took place on Sunday so it was a race against time to get the car out of parc ferme and back to garage! Mark from MWT Automotive set about replacing the damaged steering rack end and resetting the tracking whilst the Paint Perfect team secured the damaged bodywork and manipulated the badly deformed driver's door so it would close securely for race two.
Amazingly all three road series cars damaged in the first race made it out onto the grid for race two. Nic Harrison got the best start with John and Jake Honour having a door to door drag race into the first corner. Jake's starting grid position gave him the inside line and as a result he took second place. This was the running order until the closing laps of the race when Honour retired his car with a reported loss of power promoting John from 3rd to 2nd. It also was a class win for John in the Road Sport (Novice) category. This late season points haul promoted John to 4th in the Road Series points table and crowned champion in the Sport class.
Off Season
As the team heads into the off season work will continue on the car to prepare it for next year. It will be next out on track along with it's Peugeot 106 GTi sister car at Total Kit Car Live held at Brands Hatch on Saturday 15th November. The two cars will be giving demonstration laps and passenger rides. We would love to see everyone who has supported us this year so we can give them an insight into what the car is like out on track!
2015 Season
We are looking ahead to the 2015 Season and already a number of our sponsors have confirmed their support for next year. We are looking to secure all sponsorship places as soon as possible and will be sending out a sponsorship pack to companies in the coming months.
The Michelin Clio Cup Series visits a number of the top racing circuits in the country including legendary places like Donnington, Snetterton & Brands Hatch. In 2014 the series also had a race televised live on Motors TV and highlights from selected races are posted on the official Renault Sport YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/
Sponsors are invited to bring clients, friends and family to the race meetings where our team will provide tickets and access to the Michelin hospitality tent where lunch is provided. They are also invited in to see the garage and pit lane to really get a feel for what the team does on a race weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment