Brett Lidsey heads into the penultimate race meeting of the Renault UK Clio Cup season at Silverstone National Circuit this weekend, with his sights set on another consistently strong haul of championship points as he seeks to continue his terrific recent form. Northfleet-based Lidsey, who heads into rounds 15 and 16 of his first full campaign in the British Touring Car Championship support category 13th in the points standings, has delivered a series of very impressive performances of late and, as such, is brimming with confidence.

While still striving to match his season-best top six finish from the Donington Park event back in May, the 27-year-old aspiring professional racer has been chalking up consistent points at each of the last three meetings with three top 10 results from the last five races.

In terms of the championship, Lidsey can theoretically challenge for a top eight placing over the course of the final four races – two at Silverstone and two at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit at the end of the month – but as things stand he is 14 points shy of the top 12.

On current form, the MRM driver should be one to watch at Silverstone but he will arrive at the home of the British Grand Prix with some concerns hanging over the competitiveness of the 2.0-litre engine in his Clio – a problem which became fully evident after the second race at Rockingham four weeks ago.

Frustratingly, a test at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit during the interim period didn’t resolve anything, despite the MRM team making a raft of parts changes to try and rectify the issue, so the engine remained down on power without any clues as to the reason.

For the pre-event practice at Silverstone next Friday therefore, Lidsey and MRM will take a view on the competitiveness and top end speed of the car in the first session before deciding whether or not to fit a new powerplant – and the budgetary impact that will mean – ahead of the afternoon run.

“It’s not an ideal situation for us going into Silverstone”, said Lidsey, “We know there’s a problem of some sort with the engine, and the MRM guys have been working really hard to try and get to the bottom of it, but it’s still persisting. The data confirms we’re down on power, but no matter what we change it doesn’t make a difference.

“The cost of a new engine isn’t something we’d expected so late in the season, and it’s obviously not ideal, but if we have to change it then we will. Rockingham was a good weekend, we were quick in qualifying and competitive in the races, and I know if we’re on a level playing field with the engine at Silverstone we can have another strong weekend and should be right in the mix.”