First year Renault UK Clio Cup racer Ollie Pidgley matched the best qualifying performance of his maiden season in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship support category at Snetterton over the weekend, 30th/31st July – but two robust races limited his points scoring potential.
Beginning the sixth race meeting of the year in confident mood after a particularly strong showing in officially timed testing at the Norfolk track on Friday, 29th July, the 18-year-old from Downton impressed from the outset with the ninth fastest time overall and went on to conclude the day with a top 12 time in the second 45-minute session.
Aiming to replicate that sort of performance in qualifying on Saturday morning, the Ciceley Motorsport driver recorded the 10th fastest time, just 0.6 seconds shy of the front row of the grid for round 11, and was the third fastest Graduate Cup runner.
Unfortunately, though, his aim of challenging for his second top 10 finish of the campaign came unstuck on the opening lap of race one on Sunday morning when he was tagged by another car at the Wilson Hairpin.
Knocking out the tracking on his MAC Tools-liveried Clio, he still pressed on to try and recover as much ground as possible and his commitment was confirmed on lap two when clattering the kerbs at the Esses – spectacularly launching his car onto two wheels. Rising into the top 15, an unfortunate five second track limits penalty was then enforced which dropped him to 16th on corrected times.
Pidgley’s second best lap in qualifying placed him 15th on the grid for round 12 but he again endured a challenging first lap when he was forced out wide onto the grass on the outside of the left-hander at Palmer, dropping him to 18th position.
Determined to battle his way back up the order, the MSA Academy driver took the chequered flag on lap eight in 15th position but a track limits penalty for Shayne Deegan elevated Pidgley into 14th place in the final classification – equating to a weekend’s best of fourth in the Graduate Cup.
“During the test on Friday we tried something new in both sessions which really worked, FP1 was good and FP2 even better”, reflected Pidgley, “Then qualifying was great, it matched my best of the season so gave us a lot of confidence for raceday.
“In race one there was a bit of an incident at the hairpin which put the tracking out and that made things more than difficult, we lost a lot of pace. Then, in race two, I was hit from behind and pushed wide on the first lap, so lost all of the places I’d gained. Overall, the races were disappointing in the end but our pace has been good which is the positive thing – we’re getting better and better.”
With the Renault UK Clio Cup not making the journey to Knockhill in Scotland this year with the BTCC, the series will resume on 27th/28th August at Rockingham in Northamptonshire for rounds 13 and 14 of the season.
Provisional Renault UK Clio Cup Driver Standings (after Rd12):16th Ollie Pidgley, 78pts
Provisional Renault UK Clio Cup Graduate Cup Standings (after Rd12):4th Ollie Pidgley, 243pts
