Mike Bushell (Tunbridge Wells) and Ant Whorton-Eales (Lichfield) shared the victories in Sunday’s fiercely contested Renault UK Clio Cup races at Norfolk’s Snetterton circuit. Bushell it is who leaves Snetterton as the new championship leader as the title race now heads to the Rockingham circuit in Northamptonshire for its next two rounds at the end of August.
After starting from pole position, Team Pyro’s Bushell led every lap of race one to achieve his second win of the season ahead of Ciceley Motorsport’s Max Coates (Scorton) in second and Team BMR with Pyro’s Senna Proctor (Driffield) in third.
Notably both JamSport’s Whorton-Eales, who had led the standings arriving at Snetterton, and WDE Motorsport’s Paul Rivett retired from the race. This meant Bushell moved past Whorton-Eales into the championship lead and Coates jumped past Rivett into third in the standings.
Bushell again lined up on pole for race two but instead it was JamSport’s Luke Kidsley (Northampton), starting alongside him, who grabbed the lead at the first bend. A similar move in race one had ended in a disastrous spin but this time Kidsley held his nerve to lead the majority of the race.
A move by Bushell to regain the lead towards the end of the race delayed both him and Kidsley and the opportunistic Whorton-Eales was able to swoop past the pair of them for the lead in one of the moves of the season – shown live on ITV4.
Whorton-Eales led home Kidsley for the first 1-2 result for the JamSport team. Second place also marked Kidsley’s first podium result in the UK Clio Cup. Third went the way of Rivett who set a new lap record en route to passing Bushell in the closing stages.
It all means that heading to Rockingham (Sat 27-Sun 28 August) Bushell leads Whorton-Eales at the top of the championship by 19 points with a possible 204 points still up for grabs in the remaining six races.
Bushell, the 2014 Champion, commented: “Race one was obviously perfect but race two… fourth is OK but I wanted more given our pace over the weekend, but sometimes that’s how it goes when the racing is that close at the front. To come away with the championship lead, though, is very important at this stage of the season.”
Whorton-Eales said: “After the disappointment in race one it was important we hit back straight away in race two to keep the pressure up on Mike. I have to say really well done to Luke – he drove a great race – and for us to make it a 1-2 for JamSport was the icing on the cake. I’m very happy with the move I pulled to win that one – it’s one I’ll probably watch on replay a few times!”
Kidsley added: “I’m delighted to finally be up here and to do it as part of a 1-2 for JamSport is the perfect thank you to them for repairing my car after I rolled it in testing on Friday!”
Elsewhere there were other top-class drives of note at Snetterton: Pyro’s Josh Price (Redbourn) plus Cooksport pair Lee Pattison (Scholes) and George Jackson (Bedford) provided entertainment galore in race one by making up plenty of places for top ten finishes; the same race saw Ciceley’s Dan Zelos (Dereham) achieve his best result to date with seventh on his home circuit; and JamSport’s Chris Smiley (Carrickfergus) and Cooksport’s Shayne Deegan (Cambridge) both turned in impressive performances on their debuts during the weekend.
In the Teams’ championship Pyro continues to lead comfortably from JamSport which has now edged ahead of WDE into second.
