Latest Title Twist Sees Another Championship Leader
The penultimate round of the 2011 AirAsia Clio Cup saw the Championship hunt take yet another twist, with one now out of the running, one all but out of the running, and yet another change of leader.
For Team Pyro’s Jack Goff, the title fight ended in the cruelest of ways on the very first lap of the race. Having made a decent start from sixth, he headed out of Paddock Hill Bend and up towards Druids side by side with Scuderia Vittoria’s Luke Wright. Through the exit of the corner, the pair came together, with their wheels locking. Both men went off the circuit, with Wright hitting the wall hard, then ricocheting into the rear quarter of Goff’s car.
The incident warranted an appearance from the Safety Car, but for Goff, his title hopes lay in ruins. Speaking to both teams after the race, they told us that the damage was so severe on each car, that neither would make it out for Sunday’s race. A disappointing end to the season, for two drivers who have each had their fair share of the bad luck.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, was Westbourne Motorsport’s James Colburn. Going into the weekend still searching for his maiden win, the Worthing driver hit the front from the off. After two laps behind the Safety Car, Colburn made a fantastic restart pulling away from second placed man Paul Rivett. The remaining laps saw Colburn relatively untroubled out front, as he brought it home to claim his first Clio Cup win, and more importantly with it, the Championship lead.
James was kind enough to speak to BTCC Crazy about his first win, so keep an eye out for that interview.
Second place was held right through by Paul Rivett. Despite sitting on pole position, Rivett was out done by the fast starting Colburn around the outside at Paddock Hill Bend on the first lap. He held position throughout, and eventually crossed the line half a second adrift of Colburn. The gap in the standings is still just three points.
“It was good race,” he said. “James got a better start than me and he led from there. Congratulations to him on his first win.”
Team Pyro’s now sole title contender, Aron Smith, managed to keep himself out of trouble on the early laps. Despite losing a place on the opening lap, the Irishman got his head down, took the place back from Jake Packun, and made after the front two. Ultimately this also proved to be his downfall, as he explained afterwards.
“It was a nice clean move on Jake, and I tried to chase down the other two, but I took a bit too much out of my tyres as the gap was so big. It was good I caught up with them, but I’m happy to be on the podium.”
He added; “It’s all to play for tomorrow, I start third, if I get a good start and hopefully get in front. That’s my goal now.”
Local man James Dixon’s unfortunate form continued into the race, where a tenth place finish now effectively rules the TCR driver out of the running to be the 2011 Champion. Having dropped from ninth to eleventh off the start, it took him until lap five to get past Team Pyro’s David Dickenson. He couldn’t progress any further up the order though, and sadly for him his title chance has all but slipped away.
For Dixon’s teammate Nicolas Hamilton though, Round 15 brought him the most successful result of his rookie season. Making up five places off the start, for much of the race he was engaged in battle with JHR Developments’ Rob Boston over eighth place. Eventually on lap nine, the returning Boston managed to wrestle the place away from Hamilton, but for Nicolas, ninth recorded his best finish, and in front of James Dixon.
The points for fastest lap went to another impressive rookie, Scuderia Vittoria’s Ant Whorton-Eales. Fresh from a superb debut performance at Rockingham a fortnight ago, Whorton-Eales showed his pace once more recording a 1:40.563 lap and taking the extra two points with it.
The grid for race two on Sunday, sees Rivett on pole once again, but he is likely to be alone on the front row with Wright not expected to make the grid. Aron Smith is the closest man to him in third, James Colburn starts sixth and Dixon eighth.
The epic conclusion begins at 13.25, and will also be live on ITV4.
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Richard Devine
