Northfleet racer Brett Lidsey made a fantastic return to the Renault UK Clio Cup podium at Snetterton 300 Circuit on Sunday, 4th August, with two highly competitive race performances delivering a richly deserved rostrum double.Qualifying fourth on the grid for both of the weekend’s races, round nine and 10, the MRM driver made a great start to the second part of the 2019 season, after a five-week break from domestic action, with the runner-up spot in the opening encounter and third in race two.

Arriving in Norfolk fresh from his latest outing in the Clio Open at Hockenheim in Germany last weekend, where he competed as part of the Formula One support package, the 27-year-old was in great form throughout and now heads to Thruxton in a couple of weeks with confidence high.

“We had a bit of good luck on our side this weekend, which is a big change from Oulton before the summer break, so I’m pleased about that and really happy with two podiums”, said Lidsey, “To get P2 in the first race was fantastic, really good points for the championship, and third in race two made it a fantastic weekend.

“Overall I’m really happy with how things have gone at Snetterton, we were just a few tenths of a second off the pace of Jack [Young] and Max [Coates] and I did make one or two little mistakes, like being a bit eager with the throttle, but otherwise it’s been a really competitive weekend for us.”

Lidsey, who is backed by Liftout, GHR Scaffolding Ltd, GPL Projects Ltd, Certus Security, Dornack, Taylor Made Decals, MS Motorsport and MSY Grab Hire & Mini Digger Hire, was satisfied with a top four performance in qualifying on Saturday, 3rd August, a time of 2m07.097 seconds (84.09mph) putting him in a good position to challenge for his target return to the podium.

Conditions were good for round nine on Sunday morning, the first track action of the day, and Lidsey got away well from the line initially but, into Riches, he was boxed out and slipped to sixth as a result before swiftly hitting back.

Grabbing fifth into Montreal Hairpin, the MRM driver then challenged successfully for fourth into Agostini a couple of corners later but a luckless slide at the end of the lap undid all of his hard work and he dropped to sixth again.

Forced to mount another recovery, Lidsey wasted no time and after grabbing fifth from Ethan Hammerton on lap two, he took fourth place from Ben Colburn on the very next tour and then had a gap of more than four seconds to close down to the top three battle.

Chipping away, Lidsey was within three seconds of the podium into the penultimate lap but on the final tour a puncture for Max Coates’ Clio enabled Lidsey to slice past into third position to claim his sixth rostrum of the campaign. Post-race, though, MRM team-mate Jack Young was penalised for an indiscretion and so Lidsey was elevated into second place.

Beginning race two from fourth on the grid again, Lidsey launched well to maintain position through Riches and closed onto the podium battle. Into lap two there was nothing to split second to fifth places and out of Montreal the Kent driver momentarily took third before Young hit back on the exit.

Race leader Jamie Bond was then given a 10 second jump-start penalty and so, on corrected times, Lidsey was third as the battle at the front intensified. After Young passed Coates for third on track on lap three, Lidsey also tried to challenge the latter but had to tuck back in to fourth.

Remaining within a second of the Young and Coates scrap, by the start of the sixth tour Lidsey had closed back in once again and the three cars were absolutely nose-to-tail. Running just 0.3 seconds adrift, the MRM racer stayed in touch but ultimately took the flag at the end of lap 10 in fourth place just 0.2 seconds shy of Coates on the sprint to the line.

Of course, with Bond’s penalty, Lidsey was elevated to third on corrected times to secure his second podium result of the weekend and also his seventh of the season – an important boost with which to kick-off the second part of the 2019 championship campaign.

“Race two was tough”, reflected Lidsey, “When we found out Jamie [Bond] had the penalty, Jack wanted to obviously beat Max and so he was backing him up into me and that was hurting the pace I could run. There were a few opportunities but it was important not to risk anything and take away the points.”

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