Jonathan Fildes saw his bid for the 2007 ELF Renault Clio Cup title dealt yet another severe blow at Rockingham Motor Speedway on Sunday, when he was shunted out of proceedings for the second race meeting in succession.The 31-year-old from Co. Meath started the weekend strongly in pre-event testing on Friday and after setting the third fastest time in yesterday’s Group A qualifying session with a lap of 1m 30.918 seconds (77.16mph), the Total Control Racing star had realistic hopes of challenging for victory at the 1.95-mile Northamptonshire venue.Thankfully, Jonathan did get further than the opening lap of his qualification race this time – he was taken out of proceedings by team-mate Ben Winrow during the first race meeting of the season at Brands Hatch – but he still encountered troubles when forced wide and high on the Rockingham banking on lap one.His start to the race from third on the grid was superb but after seeing the gap between front-row pairing Ed Pead and Stefan Hodgetts firmly closed, he had no option other than attempt to pass them around the outside of the fast, sweeping Turn One.Unfortunately, the brave move didn’t pay dividends and Jonathan ended up being hung out to dry on the exit of Deene Hairpin and pushed unnecessarily wide onto the dirt and grass by Barry Benham. Relegated to ninth position, Jonathan had a major fight on his hands which was made all the more difficult by Benham who forcefully slammed the door shut every time Jonathan attempted a pass but the TCR man did eventually overtake his rival and finish eighth.Far from pleased with Benham’s tactics, Jonathan commented: “He’s a danger to himself, never mind anyone else. He was weaving, slamming into me and, basically, trying to take me out every time I lined him up for a pass. What Benham was doing out there in the qualifying race was plain dangerous.”With eighth place in his heat converting to 15th position on the grid for the points-scoring race, Jonathan made a decent getaway but disaster struck mere yards from the line when Niki Lanik made contact, pitching Jonathan into the hapless Jamie Cleland.Working wonders to avoid a bigger collision, the Irishman’s car ended up stranded in the middle of the track in a highly dangerous position resulting in the Safety Car being deployed. For Jonathan, it marked another weekend without championship points and he is, unsurprisingly, becoming increasingly frustrated with the 2007 series format.“This isn’t working”, said the Asgard Taverns, Applied Signs & Display, Atari Expo and Barry Evans Plastics-supported driver, “Genuine championship challengers are having their season ruined because of incidents that are totally avoidable and wouldn’t happen if the quick drivers were at the front of the grid where they should be.“Cleland was a total innocent in the whole collision, I feel very bad for him as he was just minding his own business but there was nothing I could do after Lanik hit me. Two rounds down and we have no points, it’s not good and it’s all down to these qualifying races. You can accept car problems and breakdowns for bad results but this just isn’t on.”
Jonathan added: “This format really puts the cat among the pigeons. My opinion is that the only winner here is Renault because of all the cars that have been sold and the number of registrations for the championship this year. Genuine contenders are being dealt a raw deal as it stands due to avoidable incidents.”With the 2007 format of the Clio Cup having attracted a fair amount of criticism since it was implemented at the start of the season to cope with the 40-plus strong race entry, it remains to be seen whether changes will be made ahead of the third round of the season at Thruxton in a fortnight’s time on 5th/6th May.
