Clio Cup Donington 2017

Renault Clio Cup 2017 Donington Park Weekend

Mark

The Renault Clio Cup 2017 Donington Park Weekend as part of the BTCC event took place over Easter, and the series which has a reputation for exciting and close racing lived up to that.  Dan Zelos took his first Clio pole, with Lee Pattison taking the second in qualifying on Saturday

 

Photos from Qualifying

 

The first race on Sunday saw a huge coming together just after Redgate on the first lap, with Lucas Orrock’s car badly damaged after rolling, and others impacted, with almost a third of the field not finishing.  The race was red flagged, and restarted, and there was plenty of action from the remaining cars right to the end, with just over two seconds separating the top six at the end.  Mike Bushell finished first, followed by Max Coates and Lee Pattison, however, there were a series of off track events saw this change.  First of all, Max Coates was excluded for receiving outside assistance for rejoining the race after the red flag, but he successfully appealed that.  Then, Mike Bushell had a 1.5 second time penalty for his move on Pattison to take the lead.  The revised result sees Max Coates as the winner, with Lee Pattison second and Mike Bushell third.

 

The second race saw the rain move in, and the track was becoming increasingly slippy towards the end, and the safety car was deployed after Ollie Pidgley and James Colburn went off in separate incidents.  The race restarted and front runners Paul Rivett and Lee Pattison had a coming together, which saw the race declared over as the conditions became more difficult. Again, the winning driver would be decided after the race, and again Max Coates has taken the win.

 

The series now moves on the the very fast Thruxton.

Photos from the races