Smith And Goff Bounce Back In Race Two
After Saturdays race one shenanigans, a sun soaked Snetterton saw Sunday mornings race two take a very different path, especially for the Team Pyro pairing of Aron Smith and Jack Goff as they recovered to take a 1-2 despite using very damaged cars. For Smith, his third win of the season moved him firmly back into the title hunt leapfrogging James Dixon into second place in the standings.
Smith made a good start from pole, and led into the first corner with Goff tucked in just behind. Championship rival James Dixon made a slow start from the third row, and got squeezed out onto the grass going through Riches and span out. This left Smith and the impressive Goff to take advantage and soon pulled out an advantage on the rest of the top six.
“The race was about a million times better than yesterday’s,” said Smith. “I got off the line brilliantly at the start – it was like I had traction control! After that it was happy days really. The team did a brilliant job of getting the car back together, staying at the track until 2am, so the win is all theirs.”
Goff too was happy with his second place; “It was quite close out there but I didn’t want to make any silly moves so waited for an opportunity but unfortunately that never came,” he said. “Myself and Aron both had disappointing races yesterday, so I am happy to take P2 today.”
Look out for Jack’s next blog on BTCC Crazy to find out more about his experiences, good and bad, at the weekend.
Westbourne Motorsport’s James Colburn made another poor start dropping back to fifth, but soon retook the position. On the second lap he passed Scuderia Vittoria driver Matt Allison, and set about closing down the leading pair but ultimately ran out of laps and settled for third place. Colburn is now within 17 points of Championship leader Paul Rivett, with just four rounds to go.
Allison soon found himself caught and passed by Paul Rivett, who was then unable to further improve towards Colburn, as he found himself defending from Allison’s attempts to re-pass him, while Saturdays podium finisher Josh Files was also charging behind the pair of them. Rivett held station, to claim fourth and with it retake the overall standings lead.
“I had a great race today,” said Rivett. “I made a bad start but a bump from behind somebody behind helped me recover going into the first corner at Riches. By the time I had finished battling with Allison, the first three were too far ahead that I wasn’t going to be able to catch them so I just ensured that I got the care home safe to take the points.”
Rivett, like Smith benefitted from Dixon’s problems, with his first corner incident ultimately resulting in retirement for the TCR man. He suffered a broken steering arm, and after a few slow laps decided to call it a day.
“I didn’t make the best of starts,” he explained. “Initially I beat Rivett off the line but he got a little bump off Luke Wright which put him back into contention going into the first corner. I didn’t really have anywhere to go exiting Riches and was trying to keep out of trouble, so moved over to the left and unfortunately I got clipped by Packun. I would have liked to have continued but couldn’t risk the car.”
The next action for the Clio Cup isn’t until Rockingham in six weeks time, but before then there is the ‘Cross Channel Challenge’ at the Silverstone round of the World Series by Renault over the weekend of August 20/21. So far James Dixon has publically confirmed his entry, but BTCC Crazy will be there to provide full coverage of the event.
Round twelve top ten results
1. Aron Smith Team Pyro 10 laps G
2. Jack Goff Team Pyro +0.268s G
3. James Colburn Westbourne Racing +0.847s G
4. Paul Rivett Lumison BlueSquare Data / Stancombe Vehicle Engineering +2.284s
5. Matt Allison Scuderia Vittoria +2.958s
6. Josh Files Team Pyro +3.502s G
7. Adam Bonham Team Pyro +6.599s G
8. Neb Bursac Team Pyro +8.143s
9. Jake Packun Get On Track Developments +8.333s G
10. Luke Wright Scuderia Vittoira +9.760s G
Championship top ten after round twelve
1. Paul Rivett Lumison BlueSquare Data / Stancombe Vehicle Engineering 264 pts
2. Aron Smith Team Pyro 253 pts G
3. James Dixon Total Control Racing 249 pts G
4. James Colburn Westbourne Motorsport 247 pts G
5. Jack Goff Team Pyro 208 pts G
6. Jake Packun Get On Track Developments 183 pts G
7. Matt Allison Scuderia Vittoria 168 pts
8. Adam Bonham Team Pyro 160 pts G
9. Tom Grice Total Control Racing 150 pts G
10. Josh Files Team Pyro 141 pts G
Photo: Richard Devine
Richard Devine
