After the latest round of the Renault UK Clio Cup, Tunbridge Wells racer Mike Bushell is tied for the overall championship lead with Ant Whorton-Eales. 
Both of the main title protagonists took a win a piece on an entertaining bank holiday weekend of action at Rockingham, with the two locked together at the top, with just two rounds of the season remaining.
On a sodden track, JamSport’s Whorton-Eales put in one of the drives of the season to take victory in Saturday’s race – he started a relatively lowly tenth on the grid but, on a wet track, was quickly into the lead before going on to win by nearly ten seconds.
The race ended spectacularly amid a savage lightning storm and resulted in the final laps being run in near pitch darkness. Finishing second was another of the title protagonists, 4Front Motor Group with WDE’s Paul Rivett while Team Pyro’s Bushell, who had started from pole position, was a disappointed third.
Bushell, however, made amends in Sunday’s race – shown live on ITV4. This time in dry conditions he led all the way from another pole – his ninth of the season – and set the fastest lap for two bonus points to ensure a maximum score. Rivett took another second place as Ciceley Motorsport’s Max Coates (Scorton) got the better of Whorton-Eales to finish third – a result that also keeps him in the title hunt.
Bushell has been able to slightly increase his outright lead at the top of the table. Critically, though, when the championship’s all-important two-dropped-scores rule is applied, he and Whorton-Eales are equal on points with 328 apiece. The reason for that is Bushell’s two worst scores to date amount to 22 points more than those of Bushell (38 vs 16).
Speaking after the weekends racing, Bushell said: “That is an absolutely massive result for my championship and Ant finishing off the podium is an added bonus.”
“I was a bit dejected after Saturday’s race and was actually up at five o’clock this morning thinking about how to make sure I won today. Silverstone in a few weeks is going to be very interesting.”
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