The Duck Is Finally Broken For Jubilant Colburn
Despite laying fourth entering the final two rounds of the 2011 AirAsia Clio Cup season, Westbourne Motorsport’s James Colburn was still waiting for his first win in the series. In the first race of the weekend at Brands Hatch, the penultimate round of the season, the wait finally came to an end. The win is even more significant, when it also brought the Worthing man the overall Championship lead with just one race left to run. He was kind enough to talk BTCC Crazy through his race.
The race was pretty much won for James off the start. Definitely one of the stronger starters on the Clio grid, he made a move around the outside at Paddock Hill Bend for the lead on the opening lap.
“It was important today to get off the line well, ahead of Paul,” he said. “I just got a mega start, and managed to get in front by the first corner, which is quite an achievement here because its such a short run to the first corner.”
The Goff/Wright incident brought the Safety Car out, backing the field up at the end of the first lap, but despite being less than helpful, Colburn took it in his stride and concentrated on getting a clean break at the restart.
“The safety car came out which didnt overly help,” he said. “But, we managed to get a good restart and paul was behind me all the way.”
Despite being his most local circuit, the combination of the GP layout and the extraordinary October weather conditions added further difficulty to putting together the laptimes that he needed.
“Its so hard to get a consistent lap around here because its so long,” he said. “The heat has played a big factor with tyre degradation. Every lap you could see Paul getting closer and closer and some laps i’d pull away a little bit.”
The weather also affected the driver, as he added; “It gets very hot in that car!”
After keeping the Double Champion behind him though, Colburn crossed the line to record a famous win. It wasn’t just a first win for himself, but also for the Westbourne Motorsport team. Having provided James with a consistently fast car all season, the maiden victory was sweet reward for the whole organisation.
“We’re now the leading the championship now as well, which is fantastic. We’ve just got to keep it cool now for tomorrow.”
Sunday’s grid slot is not quite as positive though, with his second fastest time only good enough to start from the third row in sixth place. If Goff and Wright fail to make the race as expected though, this effectively becomes fourth, but crucially Paul Rivett and Aron Smith both start in front of James.
“We got balked on our second quickest lap which is a shame,” he said. “Coming through into Dingle Dell, one of the guys I dont think saw me coming at the pace I was coming. So, I had to go up the inside of him which would have cost me two or three tenths. It’s a shame really but thats part of it we’ve just got to battle with it tomorrow and see where we end up.”
And the plan for race two…
“Get the same start as I did today, hope we jump the row in front and we’ll hassle Paul from there!”
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Richard Devine
