Best result of sixth for Renault UK Clio Cup racer in round eight• Streather battles illness to take away important points • Top 10 finish for Giddings on second appearance of season
First year Renault UK Clio Cup driver Daniel Rowbottom put together his most competitive race meeting of the 2016 season at a very sunny Oulton Park Island Circuit over the weekend, 4th/5th June, to conclude the event with a pleasing top six result in round eight for Finesse Motorsport.
While the finish proved to be the highlight of the visit to Cheshire for the Wisbech squad, most notably Rowbottom’s best lap – at the wheel of a newly re-shelled Clio – was faster than the pace produced by the top three finishers and only 0.1 seconds shy of the fastest lap of the race.
The Kidderminster driver, back racing this season for the first time since 2008 when he competed in the now defunct SEAT Cupra Championship, was also the team’s highest placed driver in round seven with a strong eighth place result.
Paul Streather’s weekend was badly affected by a major sickness bug which left the category race winner feeling extremely under the weather all weekend. Understandably impacting his level of performance, the Hinckley driver refused to give in and posted a best finish of ninth in race two.
In the third Finesse Clio, Jake Giddings shadowed Streather in the live televised contest on Sunday afternoon to claim a weekend best of 10th position. His attention now turns back to his regular commitments in the British GT Championship which resumes at Silverstone next weekend.
“It’s been a bit of a mixed weekend for us, fantastic to see Dan running so competitively but a real shame Paul was feeling so unwell”, said Finesse team principal Neil Giddings, “The main thing for Paul was to score in both races and he managed that even though he was very under the weather.
“Dan’s pace in the second race was fantastic, almost fastest lap, and shows he’s getting closer to that first podium. Jake was happy with his car and it was good to see him in the top 10, he might have been able to push further forward but it wasn’t worth risking anything with Paul – getting all three cars to the finish in the top 10 was our priority.”
Rowbottom lapped within just 0.5 seconds of pole position in qualifying in his re-shelled gleaming white Clio Cup car to secure seventh on the grid for round seven, with Giddings 14th fastest – just 0.3 seconds further adrift – and the unwell Streather a frustrated 15th quickest.
At the start of Saturday afternoon’s race, Rowbottom was edged back to eighth place but stuck close behind Josh Price as he sought a way past. Unfortunately edged back to ninth position on lap six, he continued to circulate with very impressive podium-matching performance and climbed into eighth again on the ninth tour. Impressively, Rowbottom lapped just 0.2 seconds shy of fastest lap pace.
Despite losing a couple of positions initially, slipping to 17th place, Streather delivered a determined performance even though his sickness almost prevented him from taking the start. By lap five, he was back into the top 15 and on lap eight he climbed into 13th position – partly as a result of Giddings dropping to 19th place – where he stayed to the flag on lap 12.
British GT regular Giddings made fantastic progress early on, carving his way through the order from 15th position into 11th place by lap seven with some great driving. After dropping back on lap eight, though, he concluded the race down in 19th.
For round eight on Sunday afternoon, in very warm conditions, Rowbottom made a great start from sixth to challenge for fifth at Old Hall but was sixth on the exit and remained there close behind the lead quintet. Lapping within 0.1 seconds of fastest lap pace as the race reached the midway point, the Team EcoMotive driver almost made the breakthrough into fifth at Lodge on lap six.
Unfortunately edged back to seventh place on lap nine, losing out while searching for a way into the top five, Rowbottom was almost immediately elevated into sixth on corrected times due to a five second penalty for Paul Rivett. At the flag on lap 12, Rowbottom was classified sixth and with a best lap of 1m35.827 seconds – quicker than all three podium finishers could manage.
Streather, feeling slightly better than he did on Saturday, gained two places on lap one, leaping ahead of team-mate Giddings, and the pair ran nose-to-tail for almost the entire duration. Although initially edged back to 13th place, Giddings moved into the top 12 behind Streather on lap two and ran in the latter’s wheeltracks to the finish.
Circulating as part of an increasingly tight five car train from eighth to 12th position, the Finesse pairing moved up into ninth and 10th respectively during the latter stages as a result of Rivett’s time penalty for exceeding track limits.
Daniel Rowbottom:“I’m starting to drive the car properly now, it’s taken me a while to get my head around it and I’ve been out of racing for a long time. We do seem to be a bit down on power, when I get behind people they seem to be able to break the tow very easily, so that’s something we need to look at. We have a very good car now though – I was second fastest in race two which shows the progress made.”
Paul Streather:“I’m disappointed I felt so ill all weekend. On Friday I was really bad, the pace was there in the car but as the day went on my body gave up and I went slower and slower. Saturday was the same, I just wanted to throw up every time I was in the car. I wasn’t anywhere near 100% for race two, but it was the best I’d felt all weekend and we’ve come away with some points – damage limitation really.”
Jake Giddings: “It was a bit ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ really in the second race – I couldn’t try any moves on Paul without risking anything so I just had to follow him. There was a lot of pace in the car, it was set-up really well, and if Paul had made a mistake I would’ve gone for it. He didn’t though, so the sensible thing was to stay where we were.”
Next on the Renault UK Clio Cup calendar is a visit to Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire a fortnight from now, over the weekend 18th/19th June.
Provisional 2016 Renault UK Clio Cup Driver Standings (after Rd8):6th Paul Streather, 141pts; 10th Daniel Rowbottom, 88pts; 18th Jake Giddings, 31pts
Provisional 2016 Renault UK Clio Cup Entrants’ Trophy Standings (after Rd8):5th Finesse Motorsport, 223pts
