Lawson Back To Winning Ways At Silverstone National

Robert Lawson regained his winning touch at Silverstone National Circuit over the weekend, 30th/31st August, after taking his sixth victory of the 2008 SEAT Cupra Championship campaign during the 17th round of the season.The impressive category rookie, who lives in Barton near Richmond, North Yorkshire, made a perfect start to the first of the weekend’s races on Saturday afternoon and thankfully emerged relatively unscathed into the first corner after contact from title rival, and reigning champion, Jonathan Adam off the start-line.Making a better start from the inside of the front-row than Adam did from his pole-position slot, Robert looked set to take the lead immediately in his Bardon Concrete and Bardon Aggregates backed SEAT Leon Cupra.Adam, however, was later penalised by officials for moving over on the JHR Developments racer and forcing him towards the pit-wall, resulting in contact between the two which damaged the front-left wheel on Robert’s car. Streaking away into the lead, Robert instantly punched in a hugely impressive lap time on the second tour of 1m 02.337 seconds (94.65mph) to open up a substantial early lead. The lap actually turned out to be the fastest of the race and a brand new lap record, three 10ths of a second better than Adam could manage.Robert went on to win by over two seconds from team-mate Andrew Herron. After round 17, he said: “It’s fantastic to win again, it’s been a few races since I was last on the top step so it’s a great feeling to be back. I’ve been so eager to get another win under our belt so I’m very pleased indeed.”The North Yorkshire driver’s weekend took a dramatic turn on Saturday evening when championship officials declared his car to have been in contravention of a ruling regarding the camber of the wheels after round 18 qualifying. At present, there is a question mark over whether or not Robert will have 25 points deducted from his total.Adamant the car was correct prior to qualifying, the JHR team is now contesting the ruling. On-board video shows evidence that Robert’s car whacked a kerb at Copse Corner heavily during the aforementioned session.  With race one commencing soon after the second qualifying session and with the camber then adjusted to what was deemed correct by officials, Robert still proved that he could go out and comfortably win, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process.Forced to start the second race from the back, Robert’s fortunes got worse when a fogged-up windscreen made racing incredibly difficult. He eventually came through to seventh place at the finish on Sunday, a good result all things considered.“It was very difficult to do anything at all in the second race, I couldn’t see very much and certainly couldn’t attack as I wanted to”, said Robert, “To come home in the top seven isn’t too bad in those circumstances but it wasn’t what we wanted. It’s all to play for now heading into the last two rounds at Brands Hatch. It’ll be exciting that’s for sure!”On overall scores, Robert is currently 21 points clear of reigning champion Adam but the outcome of his team’s appeal against the 25 point deduction is still yet to be determined and could have a major bearing on the standings ahead of rounds 19 and 20 three weeks from now, 20th/21st September, at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent.Provisional 2008 SEAT Cupra Championship Driver Standings (after Rd18):1st Robert Lawson, 290pts; 2nd Jonathan Adam, 269pts; 3rd Martin Byford, 243pts