Mike Bushell might not have won a race at Silverstone in the penultimate round of the Renault UK Clio Cup Championship, but that won’t matter as he was crowned the 2017 champion.

The Tunbridge Wells based race ace did enough across the weekend to take his second Clio Cup title and head to his home round and the season finale at his home track of Brands Hatch able to relax and enjoy the weekend.

It was James Dorlin and, in his 200th race in the championship, Paul Rivett who shared the victories in the Clio Cup’s latest two rounds at Silverstone this weekend. But it is Mike Bushell who leaves the famous Northamptonshire circuit as the new 2017 Champion with the season finale at his home track of Brands Hatch, Kent still to go.

Westbourne Motorsport’s Dorlin mastered atrociously wet conditions to win race one, held on Saturday afternoon. Team Pyro’s Lucas Orrock (Cambridge) had started it from his first-ever pole position in the category and initially led but the tiniest error from him was all Dorlin needed to slip past and take the win.

Orrock took second place to record his first UK Clio Cup podium result ahead of WDE Motorsport’s Rivett in third. Pyro’s Bushell was fifth and with his closest championship rival, WDE’s Lee Pattison (Halifax), finishing back in eighth he knew that a top nine finish in Sunday’s second race would be enough to secure the title.

Bushell started from pole and led the opening laps until Rivett found a way past into the lead. Eight drivers in all then became involved in a dramatic lead battle but three-time Champion Rivett used all his experience to cling on and take the win in his landmark 200th race.

Bushell finished right behind in second and that was more than enough for him to make sure of his second UK Clio Cup title having previously won it in 2014 – then as now with the Pyro squad. Third place went to DRM’s Daniel Rowbottom.

Heading to Brands Hatch in two weeks, Bushell cannot now be caught in the drivers’ championship. Rivett has moved up to second ahead of WDE team-mate Pattison. Still to be decided though is the Entrants Trophy title, significantly between the Pyro and WDE outfits.

Also to be decided at Brands Hatch is the Graduates Cup title for younger drivers in their first full UK Clio Cup seasons. That will come down to a three-way fight between Dorlin and two more Pyro drivers, Nathan Harrison  and ‘outsider’ Jack McCarthy from Bromley. Heading there Harrison still leads but his advantage now is down to just 14 points over Dorlin with a possible 64 to be won in the final two rounds. Meanwhile Rivett is looking good for the Masters Cup for older drivers.

Elsewhere at Silverstone there were a number of other stand-out performances, particularly in race two. These included Ciceley driver Max Coates’s charge from 13th to finish fourth; his team-mate Jade Edwards and MRM Racing’s Brett Lidsey from Northfleet achieving career-best eighth and ninth positions; and Pyro’s 16-year-old ‘find’ Bradley Burns setting a new race lap record.

Picture supplied by PSP Images.