Andrew Herron continued his superb maiden season of car racing in the ELF Renault Clio Cup in fine style during the eighth round of the season at Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk on Sunday, 29th July, the Northern Ireland ace achieving a career-best fourth position to climb into the coveted championship top 10.The 19-year-old, driving for front-running squad JHR Developments, qualified on the second row of the grid for round eight with a terrific performance on Saturday morning and for well over half the race Andrew looked as though he would actually finish on the Clio Cup podium for the first time in his short career.With the original race start red flagged following a series of collisions, Andrew re-formed on the grid in fourth place and at the re-start he made a terrific getaway to move into third place behind Michael Doyle and race leader, JHR team-mate Robert Lawson.As the Brian Herron Contracts-backed star sought to put Doyle under pressure, Andrew was in turn being pressed by Martin Byford but he held firm with impressive pace which would eventually see him posting the third fastest lap of the race with a great time of 1m 18.502 seconds, a mere 10th of a second shy of the quickest lap of all.Lap four saw the appearance of the Safety Car due to a dislodged tyre stack at Russell Bend and at the re-start on lap six, Andrew continued in third place as he held off the attentions of Byford. Half a dozen laps later, however, the Dromore resident ran wide at Sear Corner which allowed Byford to get a run on him down the Revett Straight and he had no option but to cede his podium spot to the vastly experienced saloon car campaigner.Continuing on Byford’s tail, Andrew wanted the position back but he wasn’t quite able to force a mistake and on lap 16 he crossed the line in a still superb fourth place just two 10ths of a second shy of his first ever Clio Cup podium.Delighted with his performance, the category rookie commented: “I had a mega start, it was going really well and I felt I was actually quicker than (Michael) Doyle into all of the corners but he had good pace on the straights. “It was unfortunate I made a mistake at the second corner which allowed (Martin) Byford to get a run on me down the straight so after that I tried hard to stay consistent but I ran out of time before I could try and challenge him again. It’s a shame to miss out on the podium but fourth is still a great result, I really enjoyed that race.”Fourth place today sees Andrew move into 10th position in the driver standings, an outstanding effort in his first season. Incidentally, the Co. Down star also gained an additional two championship points after the round seven result was amended following the post-race exclusion of Niki Lanik – Andrew now credited with eighth position.The eighth race meeting of the ELF Renault Clio Cup season will take place at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit three weeks from now on 18th/19th August, the Kent venue which was the scene for Andrew’s car racing debut during the opening round of the Clio campaign at the start of April. Looking ahead to the next event, he commented: “We’re so close to the podium now, just one more step and we’ll be there. Today proves though, at this level if you make one small mistake you’ll lose positions. Everything felt really good today, the car was great and I’m even more confident we can be strong during the next round at Brands Hatch.”Ahead of the next race meeting, Andrew will return to the track at Thruxton Circuit on Wednesday, 8th August, as part of an official championship test at the Hampshire venue. Provisional 2007 ELF Renault Clio Cup Driver Standings (after Rd8)1st Stefan Hodgetts, 185pts; 2nd Martin Byford, 173pts; 10th Andrew Herron, 85pts