Front-running saloon car racer Brett Lidsey experienced a mixed outing at hot and sunny Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire over the weekend, 19th/20th May, during an unpredictable and action-packed third event of the Renault UK Clio Cup season.

While frustrated to have missed out on the top 10 in qualifying for rounds five and six, the MRM driver from Northfleet in Kent was fairly satisfied with a 12th place finish in a shortened race one on Sunday – where brake issues late on compromised his pace – and had his sights set on much more in the second encounter later in the afternoon.

With a serious dose of misfortune, though, Lidsey’s involvement in round six came to an untimely end just three corners into the race when he was caught-up in the aftermath of an incident which had been triggered when team-mate Jade Edwards was pitched into a spin just ahead.

Resulting in significant front-left damage to Lidsey’s Liftout, GHR Scaffolding Ltd, GPL Projects Ltd, Certus Security, Dornack, Taylor Made Decals and MS Motorsport liveried Clio, he did manage to crawl back to the pits but retirement was guaranteed.

“You think afterwards could I have done this or that to avoid it, but everything happened so quickly and there was nowhere for me to go”, said the disappointed 26-year-old after race two, “It’s been a bit of a nightmare weekend really, obviously the accident in race two but there were problems with major tyre degradation and that ended up with them cutting the race distances down.

“As a driver you want to race the full distance, but to get to race at all was a bonus really with the problems there were with the tyres wearing out. We were given a new pair of front tyres each, which obviously helped, but it definitely wasn’t the weekend we wanted.”

Qualifying on Saturday afternoon was, as expected, incredibly tight and Lidsey ended the session with the 14th fastest time – placing him within a second of pole position and just 0.6 seconds shy of the top six. Strong consistency, though, was rewarded with his second best lap time good enough for an improved 12th on the race two grid, only 0.4 seconds away from the top six.

Both races were scheduled to run over a distance of 12 laps but officials, after consultation with tyre partner Michelin and the teams, decided to reduce each contest to a maximum of nine laps with a lot of concern regarding heightened tyre wear in the hot temperatures.

Round five on Sunday morning began well for Lidsey who got away from the line neatly and gained two places on the first lap, avoiding the slow-starting Dan Zelos. Initially working to keep Aaron Thompson behind, the MRM racer then started to close-up on the pack ahead and by the end of lap three he was within just half a second of the battling Bradley Burns and Zak Fulk.

By the start of the sixth tour Lidsey was as close as he’d been, just 0.3 seconds shy of Fulk, as the train of cars behind the top six ran line astern. On the subsequent tour, though, a bolt snapped on one of his rear brake callipers which resulted in an obvious drop in lap times.

With significantly less stopping power at his disposal, the Kent driver dropped back into the clutches of Thompson but he managed to keep his rival at bay over the final couple of laps to secure a very hard-earned top 12 result.

Aiming to make progress from the sixth row of the grid in race two of the day, Lidsey made a clean start – avoiding Zelos who, as in the opening contest, couldn’t get away from the line again – but his race was run just three corners into the encounter.

As the pack threaded through the Campbell and Cobb sequence of turns, team-mate Edwards was turned around after contact from a rival and Lidsey had nowhere to go. Despite braking as heavily as he could, the contact with Edwards’ stricken car was unavoidable.

Now, the Kent sportsman takes a break of just over a month from race action and instead turns attention to his upcoming wedding to fiancée Graz. Taking place when the Clio Cup resumes at Oulton Park on 9th/10th June, Lidsey will make his return to the track for rounds nine and 10 of the season at Croft in North Yorkshire on 23rd/24th June.

“We want to test at Croft before we go there, it’ll be touch and go whether we can manage it as my work is really busy at the moment but we’re going to try”, he added, “Obviously we left Thruxton disappointed with the results, but really happy too knowing I’m getting married in a few weeks!”

Images courtesy of Jakob Ebrey