Paul Rivett (Epsom Downs) and Max Coates (Scorton), on home ground, were the winners of the Renault UK Clio Cup’s latest two rounds of 2016 at North Yorkshire’s Croft Circuit but it is Ant Whorton-Eales (Lichfield) who leads the championship heading into the season’s mid-season break.
4Front Motor Group with WDE’s Rivett led the first of the two races, held on Saturday, all the way from pole position as Ciceley Motorsport’s Coates got the better of Team Pyro’s Mike Bushell (Tunbridge Wells) behind to finish in second – his best result yet in the UK Clio Cup.
However in Sunday’s race Coates was to go one better… Bushell led away from pole position but ran wide and was passed by team-mate Josh Price (Redbourn), Rivett and Coates. Rivett then took over the lead but slowed with a mechanical problem on his car – gifting the lead back to Price.
But then Coates and the following Bushell swooped in to pass Price and battle it out for the win in the closing laps. Coates, in his first season in the UK Clio Cup, held his nerve to fend off 2014 Champion Bushell and give himself and the Ciceley team an emotional and highly popular first race win in the championship. He also became the sixth different driver to win in the UK Clio Cup's ten rounds held so far in 2016...
Meanwhile JamSport’s Whorton-Eales took fourth and seventh place finishes in the two races at Croft. These, plus points won back on appeal for his win in Donington Park’s second race held in April (CLICK HERE), are sufficient to put him top of the championship prior to the next two rounds at Norfolk’s Snetterton circuit in late July.
Whorton-Eales's advantage over second-placed Bushell is just three points. Rivett is third while Coates, thanks to his great form at Croft, is suddenly up to fourth.
An ecstatic Coates commented: “It’s just been the perfect weekend – even more so because it’s in front of my home crowd. What a championship to win in and what a place to do it at – and all live on ITV4! We’ve been getting more and more competitive with every round and now we have our first win I see no reason why we can’t achieve more in the season’s second half.”
Rivett said: “For a moment there it was looking like we were on for two wins so it was a cruel way in the second race for us to lose so many valuable points. However we’ve been the fastest car on track all weekend and that’s a great positive to take into the break. We can still come back yet in the title race…”
Whorton-Eales added: “It’s not been the best weekend – we were on the backfoot a bit after qualifying lower down the two grids than we normally do – but we’re still taking away a healthy dose of points. We’ve had very good race pace in the car again and I’m confident we can get back to winning ways when the season resumes in late July.”
Elsewhere there were several other stand-out performances at Croft: Finesse Motorsport’s Paul Streather (Hinckley) rose from 14th on the grid to finish sixth in race one; after a qualifying crash, Team Cooksport’s George Jackson (Bedford) twice came through from 18th and last to take ninth and 11th places in the two races; Team Ecomotive with Finesse’s Daniel Rowbottom (Kidderminster) achieved a best-ever fifth place race result – just days after getting married; and Pyro’s David Dickenson (Wicklow) had by far his best qualifying performance with second on the grid for race one.
In addition to the main UK Clio Cup standings, Coates leads the championship’s Graduates Cup for young, first-season drivers and Pyro has extended its lead in the Entrants’ table over nearest rivals WDE and JamSport.
