PEAD STREAKS INTO THE LEAD
ED Pead (Northampton) sailed to the top of the points table in the ELF Renault Clio Cup Saturday afternoon after starting on pole and winning the championship’s first race at Croft Circuit.
The 28-year-old said he had no trouble holding off main rival, Jonathan Adam (Kirkcaldy, Scotland), who later retired with a gearbox problem enabling Pead to leap-frog the 20-year-old by 14 points.
“I can definitely maintain the lead,” said the Boulevard Team Racing driver. “For half the race I kept Jonathan behind me. It wasn’t a struggle.”
After Adam’s Total Control Racing car retired Pead was able to get fully committed into the corners and pulled out a lead of three seconds from Nick Adcock (Bromyard, Herefordshire), which he maintained until the chequered flag.
Behind him Total Control Racing teammates Adcock and Tom Onslow-Cole (New Malden, Surrey) battled all the way for second place.
Onslow-Cole, 18, got the better of the 40-year-old on lap five but then Adcock had a series of stunning laps, including the fastest of the race on lap seven. He moved past his rival on lap eight in a tooth-and-nail passing move at the Hairpin.
The result was Adcock’s best ever finish and he has now predicted a win before the end of the season. “I’ve got to have a win,” he said. “The car felt magnificent. I just started reeling Tom back in and he started making mistakes under pressure.
“I got ahead of him at the hairpin but it’s easier to hunt then be the hunted.”
Onslow-Cole was the first to admit he made mistakes but says it was give and take between him and Adcock. “I pushed too hard at the start and couldn’t get past Nick,” he said. “He was defending really well. But then I sat back and he made a mistake and I got through.”
Further down the field Steve Wood (Ashleworth, Gloucestershire) had to struggle back from a ten second penalty for jumping the start and then had more worries when his bodywork came lose forcing him to pit. The 43-year-old Saxon Motorsports driver eventually finished 15th, picking up six points to add to his 68.
Amy Chambers (Pershore, Worcestershire) finished 13th after pulling out a 47 second gap between her and Annabel Meade (Kingston-upon-Thames), who had started in front of her on the grid.
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