Solid Showing From Newcomer Boston
The Rockingham rounds of the AirAsia Clio Cup saw a number of new faces take to the grid for the first time this season. One of those was Rob Boston, driving with the JHR Developments team. He very kindly took some time out to talk to BTCC Crazy after Saturday’s qualifying session.
Boston, from Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, is no stranger to the Clio Cup having won a scholarship entry into the Championship back in 2008. In his early years he raced against, and was never beaten by, F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton in the days of the Formula TKM Karting series. Rob has more recently been found in the Ma5da MX5 Cup where he is the current Champion.
His arrival back into the Clio Cup came with a bang in Fridays first practice session, as fresh out of the blocks Rob set the second fastest time at 1:30.760, just one hundredth shy of session leader Adam Bonham. While he couldn’t seem to repeat this in the second session, his fastest time earned him second in Fridays overall classification, a remarkable feat given the limited amount of time he had spent in the car. His pace then remained consistent heading into qualifying on Saturday, where he claimed two tenth placed starts and was within six and seven tenths of runaway pole sitter Jack Goff with his fastest two times of the day.
He said; “It was really good to be at the front. It’s so fickle with the Clio’s, learning how to drive on the slick tyres and getting the best out of those first few laps, which i’m afraid i just didn’t in qualifying. I can be at the top of the timesheets in practice, but so easily just be a few tenths off and be in tenth place.”
“It’s only half a second but i feel like we’ve got a decent race car. When we did the long test sessions yesterday the pace was really good all the way through.”
Boston went on to claim a pair of strong top ten finishes from both races, getting involved in some good battles in the process. On his return to front wheel drive racing no-one could doubt his pace and ability.
The obvious question; Is it a one off appearance?
“It’d be great to do it full time to be honest. I’ve had three years doing the Mazda’s. I’ve won the Mazda Championships the last couple of years so i was looking to make the move up into the Touring Car package with the Clio’s.”
“Steve Hunter and JHR do a fantastic job so it’d be great to run with them. At the moment its a one off, it depends on budget and depends what Steve wants to do with the car but i’d very much like to do the last round at Brands Hatch. In an ideal world i would definitely like to give it another go.”
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Richard Devine
