Niki Lanik (Ashurst Wood) successfully defended his ELF Renault Clio Winter Cup title with a win and a second place at North Yorkshire’s Croft circuit on Saturday, 10th November. The Youth 4 Human Rights with Stancombe Vehicle Engineering racer repeated his 2006 Clio Winter Cup performance of three wins to beat JHR Developments’ Andrew Herron (Dromore) by 12 points. Herron won the day’s first race but could only manage third in the fourth and final round.

Qualifying on Saturday morning saw local favourite Harry Vaulkhard (Jesmond), who works as an instructor at the 2.13-mile circuit, put his Robertshaw Racing car on pole position for both races by well over half a second. Herron joined him on the front row, while Lanik and Mardi Gras Motorsport’s Árón Smith (Rathfarnham) made up the second row for each round.

As round three got underway, Herron got the drop on Vaulkhard to lead through Clervaux on the first lap, with Lanik also getting ahead of the pole-sitter. From eighth on the grid, Coastal Racing’s Carl Bradley (Morecambe) surged through to fourth ahead of maximumsolutions.co.uk’s Stewart Lines (Allen End, Staffs) who started last.

Starting from sixth, Total Control Racing’s Alex MacDowall (Carlisle) lost ground on lap one, dropping to 10th. He recovered to finish seventh, setting the fastest lap of the race at 1min 39.701 (76.79mph) on the final lap to claim two bonus championship points.

In the early stages, Lanik was made to defend as Vaulkhard tried to regain second place, while the closest battle on track was for Lines’ fifth place with JHR’s Richard Cannon (Chesterfield) and TCR’s Jonathan Ridley-Holloway (Barnstaple) in close pursuit.

Lap five saw Vaulkhard make his pressure pay off as he passed Lanik through the chicane, as the group led by Lines was catching Bradley in fourth place. At the head of the field, Northern Irishman Herron, looking to make up ground on Lanik in the overall standings, was building a huge 3.5s lead.

Even with a clear track ahead of him, Vaulkhard was unable to close the gap on Herron on lap six. The following lap, in his efforts to score his first Clio Cup win, Vaulkhard out-braked himself at Tower and retired from the race, promoting Lanik to second, worth three championship points more than third place.

With the top two places virtually settled, the race was on for the final podium place between Lines and Bradley who are friends from their previous racing in the Mini Challenge. The gap continued to close until the penultimate lap 11 when Bradley eased away slightly, before drama on the final tour.

Lines finally spotted enough of a gap at the hairpin, just a few hundred yards from the chequered flag. Diving to the inside, he muscled past Bradley and won the drag race to the line by a mere 0.008s, a matter of inches separating the duo after more than 25 miles of racing.

By contrast, race-winner Herron was more than eight seconds ahead of Lanik, who was a further eight seconds ahead of the thrilling battle for third. Heading into the final race of the four-round championship, Lanik held a five-point lead over Herron.

In a repeat of the earlier race, Herron jumped into the lead ahead of Lanik as Vaulkhard once again failed to make full use of pole position. The top three ended the lap nose to tail, with a gap back to a train of four cars led by Árón Smith ahead of MacDowall, Bradley and Ridley-Holloway.

Knowing victory would assure him the title, Lanik made his move on lap two to pass Herron at Tower Bend with a textbook out-braking manoeuvre. MacDowall once again lost out in the early exchanges, taking to the grass at Tower as he raced Bradley for fifth place.

Vaulkhard continued to challenge Herron for second place, enabling Lanik to increase his lead by half a second on lap five. Further down the order, TCR’s Mike Robinson (Effingham) climbed into the top 10 by passing Team Pyro’s Joe Hopkins (Shepshed) on the straight after getting a better run out of the chicane.

Lap six saw Vaulkhard take second place from Herron, coming from a long way back under braking at Tower. Later in the lap Vaulkhard had a huge slide coming into the Complex, somehow keeping the car on track and ahead of Herron through the final turns.

Although two seconds behind Lanik, the 23-year-old set the fastest lap of the race at 1min 33.322s (82.04mph) on lap seven to cut the lead by half a second. However, Lanik was able to respond and never let his pursuer get within one second of the lead.

With two laps to go, Bradley was right on the tail of fourth-placed Smith but was unable to find a way past as Smith made up for a disappointing round three when he gambled on slick tyres on a damp track. Meanwhile, Vaulkhard dropped away from Lanik for the first time, leaving the 20-year-old Austrian free to clinch his sixth Clio Winter Cup victory in eight attempts and his second title.

Commenting after the race, Lanik said: “The team made some changes to the car after the first race and it paid off because it was working brilliantly. As soon as I got past Andrew I tried to put in some quick laps and build a lead. It’s a great feeling to be out in front and able to pick your braking points without too much pressure.

“To win the Clio Winter Cup two years in a row is fantastic and now I want to go for the top five in the summer championship. There were a few times I was running near the front in 2007 but results didn’t quite go my way. I think next season, with the experience I gained this year, I will be able to improve my results.”

Registration for the 2008 ELF Renault Clio Cup is due to open in January.

Drivers’ standings after round four – provisional

1 Niki Lanik                              AUT             Youth 4 Human Rights with SVE     124 pts2 Andrew Herron                     GBR            JHR Developments                          112 pts3 Alex MacDowall                    GBR            Total Control Racing                         86 pts4 Carl Bradley                         GBR            Coastal Racing                                  84 pts5 Chris Law                             GBR            Team Pyro                                        60 pts6 Jonathan Ridley-Holloway    GBR            Total Control Racing                         60 pts