Total Control Racing’s Jonathan Fildes made a highly successful return to Thruxton today, his first visit to the Hampshire venue in a Renault Clio Cup race car since his 2003 title-winning season, by topping the times during the first of two test sessions.The 31-year-old Irishman, who resides in Co. Meath, made an immediate impression on the packed circuit, an incredible 40 cars taking part in the test, and after just 11 laps of the 2.35-mile track he posted the fastest time of the day’s opening session with a lap of 1m 24.547 seconds (100.30mph).Switching back to his Clio Cup race car just three days after winning a brace of Formula Libre races at Mondello Park at the wheel of a Ralt RT4 Formula 3000 single-seater, the Asgard Taverns, Applied Signs & Display, Barry Evans Plastics and Atari Expo-backed driver took no time at all in readjusting to his front-wheel drive Renault.The second of the day’s two sessions saw Jonathan utilise old tyres for the majority of the 45-minute test and although this allowed several competitors on newer rubber to set quicker times, he was still totally happy with the sixth fastest time of 1m 24.728 seconds.Ending the day fourth overall on combined times, Jonathan is confident he has a car with which he can win during both of this season’s ELF Renault Clio Cup race meetings at Thruxton, the first taking place in less than four weeks on 5th/6th May and the second in mid-October for the season finale.“I’m very happy with our pace today”, said the delighted Irishman, “Everything went extremely well and we were miles quicker than anyone during the first session, it was only when Robert Lawson put new tyres on that he closed in on us at the end.“We spent the majority of the test on older tyres as I wasn’t as happy with the feel of the car on new rubber. We’re especially happy when taking that into consideration and I’m also confident for the Thruxton races as we set our fastest time on our own today, the others spent a lot of time drafting each other so that bodes well for us.” Fildes hungry for victory at RockinghamAfter the bitter pill Jonathan had to swallow at Brands Hatch when punted out of his qualification race by TCR team-mate Ben Winrow, he heads to Rockingham Motor Speedway 10 days from now hungry for victory.Having qualified strongly for the Group A heat at Brands Hatch, hopes were high for a relatively straight-forward passage through to the first points-scoring race of the year but an over-ambitious overtaking attempt by Winrow at Druids Hairpin forced Jonathan out of the race, making him the first victim of the category’s new format.With Jonathan now at a serious disadvantage compared to his main title rivals due to the fact he will only be able to score from nine championship rounds at most, as opposed to the 10 rounds the others can potentially draw from, he knows a minimum of a podium finish has to be his aim at Rockingham next weekend.

“You’re team-mates, not team enemies”, said the Irish sensation, “That’s one of the hardest things to take about the incident at Brands. It’s hard enough work battling everyone else out there but you don’t expect your team-mate to take you out.“That’s the problem we face with the new format though. Having to progress to the main race through qualifying heats can always pose a problem for the title contenders. It would be much better to allow the top five or six drivers from each qualifying session to go directly through to Sunday’s race without having to take part in Saturday’s heats.”Jonathan added: “I know what I need to do at Rockingham though, Clios last went there in 2003 when I won the championship and we scored a couple of podiums. I want to win though, more than ever after what happened at Brands. With just one race each weekend from which you can score points, big results are vital.”Round two of the ELF Renault Clio Cup, which will be broadcast live on digital satellite and cable subscription channel Setanta Sports 2, will take place on the Rockingham Super Sports layout on Sunday, 22nd April. Qualifying and qualification heats will take place on Saturday, 21st April, with pre-event testing to be held on Friday, 20th April.