Mike Bushell took the Renault UK Clio Cup Championship lead following a win and a fourth place in the latest round of the series at Norfolk’s Snetterton circuit at the weekend.
After starting from pole position, Team Pyro’s Bushell led every lap of race one to achieve his second win of the season ahead of Ciceley Motorsport’s Max Coates in second and Team BMR with Pyro’s Senna Proctor in third.
Notably both JamSport’s Whorton-Eales, who had led the standings arriving at Snetterton, and WDE Motorsport’s Paul Rivett retired from the race. This meant Bushell moved past Whorton-Eales into the championship lead and Coates jumped past Rivett into third in the standings.
Bushell again lined up on pole for race two but instead it was JamSport’s Luke Kidsley, starting alongside him, who grabbed the lead at the first bend. A similar move in race one had ended in a disastrous spin but this time Kidsley held his nerve to lead the majority of the race.
A move by Bushell to regain the lead towards the end of the race delayed both him and Kidsley and the opportunistic Whorton-Eales was able to swoop past the pair of them for the lead in one of the moves of the season – shown live on ITV4.
Whorton-Eales led home Kidsley for the first 1-2 result for the JamSport team. Second place also marked Kidsley’s first podium result in the UK Clio Cup. Third went the way of Rivett who set a new lap record en route to passing Bushell in the closing stages.
It all means that heading to Rockingham (Sat 27-Sun 28 August) Bushell leads Whorton-Eales at the top of the championship by 19 points with a possible 204 points still up for grabs in the remaining six races.
Speaking after the weekend, Bushell, the 2014 Champion, said “Race one was obviously perfect but race two… fourth is OK but I wanted more given our pace over the weekend, but sometimes that’s how it goes when the racing is that close at the front. To come away with the championship lead, though, is very important at this stage of the season.”
Images courtesy of www.psp-images.co.uk