Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent, the ‘home’ track for Northfleet racer Brett Lidsey, hosts the championship curtain-raiser for the new Renault UK Clio Cup season this coming weekend, where the MRM driver will be setting his sights high from the outset.
Following a long winter of sponsorship negotiations and preparation, 27-year-old Lidsey is ready to mount a strong front-running bid in his second full year in the British Touring Car Championship support series – the last ever in the UK for the one-make Clio Cup.
Remaining with the MRM team for 2019, Lidsey has already set his stall out very impressively with a superb performance during the officially timed pre-season ‘Media Day’ test last week at Silverstone National Circuit in Northamptonshire.
Delivering tremendous pace and consistency, Lidsey ended the three-hour test outing third fastest with a best lap of 1m04.485 seconds (91.58mph). Placing him just 0.2 seconds shy of the top of the timesheets, he was also just a mere tenth of a second shy of 2018 title contender Max Coates.
Ahead of the first two races of the new campaign a week from now, the second of which will receive live television coverage on ITV4 as well as online at the www.itv.com/btcc website and via mobile devices, Lidsey is feeling particularly buoyant.
Relishing the prospect of beginning the campaign in front of his home crowd, Lidsey will be racing with backing from Liftout, GHR Scaffolding Ltd, GPL Projects Ltd, Certus Security, Dornack, Taylor Made Decals, MS Motorsport and MSY Grab Hire & Mini Digger Hire.
“It’s been a long winter since I raced in the International Finals in November, so I’m counting the days until the first round at Brands”, said the MRM driver, “Obviously, the test at Silverstone last week went very well for us, we were quick and consistent and to end the session top three was exactly where we wanted to be.
“There are some very quick and experienced drivers, as ever, in the Clio Cup this year but we’ve definitely raised our game since the middle point of last season and I’m confident we’re going to have the ability to challenge for podiums this year.”
He added: “As always at Brands we have some amazing support and I’ll be welcoming a lot of friends and family along, as well as many of my fantastic sponsors. To take my first Renault UK Clio Cup podium at my home track would be pretty special. I’ll be giving it everything we’ve got.”
Images courtesy Jakob Ebrey Photography