ENDS WITH HERRON FOURTH FASTEST
Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit provided the venue for the second day of official pre-season ELF Renault Clio Cup testing, Wednesday, 25th March, with Andrew Herron posting a very strong fourth fastest time overall.
With just over a week remaining until the championship curtain-raiser at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit on 4th/5th April, the Northern Ireland racer once again confirmed his position as a genuine 2009 title prospect after lapping the 3.2-mile Silverstone Grand Prix track just four 10ths of a second shy of the outright pace.
Posting a quickest time of 2m 10.343 seconds (88.21mph) during the second of yesterday’s four sessions, 20-year-old Andrew needed just three laps to put himself firmly in the front-running group again having ended session one as the third fastest driver after only six laps.
Rain started to fall ahead of the afternoon’s two sessions at the Northamptonshire venue which gave the Dromore based youngster a chance to re-acquaint himself with a Clio Cup car in wet conditions. He went on to end the final period inside the top 10 to cap off an impressive couple of days at Silverstone.
Andrew said: “Overall the two days have been very good for us and we’re confident we’ll be up at the front when we arrive at Brands Hatch next weekend for the first two rounds of the season. We ran comfortably in the top four this morning and then in the wet I worked to get back into driving the Clio in the rain. It takes a totally different approach to the more powerful SEAT Cupra I raced last year.”
First Clio races of 2009 just a week awayAfter confirming his 2009 ELF Renault Clio Cup race deal with JHR Developments at the beginning of the week, Andrew immediately put himself in the frame for a realistic crack at the championship crown.
This season’s Clio Cup title battle will receive double the level of television coverage it had in 2008 with an extension of the ITV network’s outstanding programming. During each race weekend, Clio Cup races which take place on any given Sunday will be screened live or as-live on ITV4 which is available at channel 28 on Freeview, channel 117 on cable and channel 120 on the Sky digital platform.
The championship will also benefit from a tremendous highlights service as part of the ever-popular Motorsport UK magazine programme which begins a 35-week run in late April on ITV1. The new hour-long format will receive repeat screenings on ITV4 and Men & Motors and will be hosted by ITV’s former Formula One pit-lane reporter Louise Goodman.
Added to this, Motorsport UK will be available through the ITV Player at itv.com/catchup and complete footage of every Sunday Clio Cup race will also be uploaded to the www.renaultsport.co.uk championship website.built by Racecar
Round one of the 2009 ELF Renault Clio Cup will take place at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent next Saturday, 4th April, at approximately 16.30 following the opening qualifying session of the season at 11.15. Round two, which will be screened live on ITV4, is timetabled to commence at 13.30 on Sunday, 5th April.
