Team Pyro ace made to fight hard for fourth victory of 2015 campaignPodium double sees Warwickshire star close in on championship lead

Ash Hand continued his commanding vein of form in the 2015 Renault UK Clio Cup at Oulton Park, clinching a hard-fought victory and gritty podium finish to home in on the top of the championship standings. Hand travelled to Oulton off the back of a hat-trick of triumphs from the most recent four races and bidding to maintain his burgeoning momentum as the man to beat in the fiercely-disputed single-make, ITV4-televised British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) support series. Prior to the weekend, the talented young Nuneaton ace did not boast a great track record around the undulating and demanding Cheshire circuit – indeed, last year, his car refused even to start. Be that as it may, he instantly proved he would be a force to be reckoned with, seamlessly picking up from where he had left off at Thruxton a month earlier by pacing the field during free practice in his Sigma, The Manchester College and QTS-backed car. Despite conditions changing significantly overnight, Hand secured a strong third on the grid for race one and pole position – his fourth of the season – for race two. The fact that his two best efforts were separated by a scant 15 thousandths-of-a-second only served to underline his commendable consistency. A wheelspin-afflicted getaway in the opening encounter caused the highly-rated Maple Park hotshot to concede a couple of spots by the time the marauding pack had reached the first corner, but unbowed, he reclaimed third place by mid-distance before proceeding to hassle the duelling leaders right the way to the chequered flag. Despite lapping faster than the two drivers ahead, the lack of overtaking opportunities at Oulton meant there was no chance to make a move, but a rostrum result nonetheless represented excellent points towards his title challenge. Similar issues at the start of race two left Hand down in third once more, but after swiftly recovering one of his lost positions, he immediately began applying the pressure on Ant Whorton-Eales in the lead. A textbook manoeuvre into the Island Hairpin on lap four saw the 21-year-old Warwickshire star boldly seize the initiative – but his advantage did not last long, as his adversary tapped him at Cascades next time round, with an over-ambitious passing attempt sending the #1 Team Pyro car sliding sideways on full opposite lock. Showcasing his supreme skill behind the wheel, Hand rapidly regained control, but by the time he was pointing in the right direction, he had lost two seconds and two positions – with seven laps remaining to claw them back. Headlights ablaze and fired-up to fight, he set a scintillating pace – almost half-a-second quicker than anybody else could manage – and after relieving Jordan Stilp of second, latched onto the tail of earlier assailant Whorton-Eales. Keeping in mind that his rival would likely receive a penalty for his indiscretion, he judiciously elected against trying to wrest away the lead, and sure enough, series officials subsequently switched the positions around. That secured the Andy Priaulx Sports Management (APSM) protégé his fourth victory of the campaign – an astonishing 50 per cent strike rate – and sixth rostrum from eight races, elevating him to second in the standings and narrowing his deficit to the top of the table to just 21 points.“I felt pretty optimistic going into the weekend,” Hand asserted. “I’d done my pre-event homework and had prepared well with the help of John Pratt and Andy Priaulx at iZone, and because Oulton hasn’t traditionally been one of my most successful tracks, I also spoke to Josh Files. As a former Clio Cup Champion, he has a lot of experience of the circuit and has always been quick round there, and I was able to feed off his knowledge.“Our speed was very encouraging in practice, but the wind really picked up the following day, which made qualifying tough. Suddenly, the tow – which hadn’t mattered much on Friday – was worth half-a-second. The Pyro boys did a superb job with the car as ever and it felt great, but since it’s so difficult to work with other drivers when the championship is as competitive as it is, I spent the whole of the session just pushing my own air. I still managed to set two really good laps and I was content to qualify where we did – it put us in a strong position for the races.“Unfortunately, it seemed like the Clios didn’t like the inside line on the grid at Oulton, and at the start of race one, myself and the guys directly in front and behind all struggled to pull cleanly away. That dropped me to fifth in the blink of an eye, after which I had to fight my way back through. We were plenty fast enough, but as soon as I caught the two leaders, we hit a brick wall.“I probably took too much out of the tyres as I was chasing them down, because I’d had to work the car really hard to regain the lost ground and we no longer had the pace we needed to attack. Still, I was happy with another podium finish – when you can’t win, you need to make sure you’re putting some solid points on the board every time, as consistency will be crucial in the title battle.“It was the same story at the start of race two – I sat there wheelspinning away on the grid, which left me playing catch-up again. I reclaimed second place pretty quickly and pulled off a well-executed move into the hairpin to take the lead. Then, heading down into Cascades, Whorton-Eales just drove into the back of me. That really tested my car control – I was pleased with my save, as it could very easily have cost me a lot more than it did.“I’ve done some mind coaching work recently with Dr. Ben Chell, and that enabled me to remain calm and immediately re-set. It would have been all-too simple to fall into the red mist trap, but I’ve learnt a lot and I’m a much more mature driver now than I was. Once I was back up to second, I hunted Ant down and made sure I put him under as much pressure as I could. I was fairly confident he would get a penalty so I never had any intention of trying to overtake, but I knew he would be expecting me to make a move and I enjoyed the fact that he was having to look in his mirrors all the time!“Overall, it was a very satisfying weekend. Everything around me at the moment is absolutely on top form, from the team to myself to the car, and if we can win at Oulton – which I’d say is one of the toughest tracks on the calendar – imagine what we can do at Croft and Knockhill, two of my favourite circuits. I can’t wait!”