Smith and Pyper show good pace but only one makes the chequered flag at Brands Hatch

The second race of the 2008 ELF Renault Clio Cup season produced a mixed bag of results for the Renault Aftersales Racing squad at Brands Hatch. Árón Smith drove superbly to finish seventh out of 27 drivers but team-mate Gavin Pyper was left rueing his luck after crashing out on the final lap.Both men had started the opening weekend of the new season in fine form 24 hours earlier, Smith finishing fourth and Pyper seventh in Saturday’s first championship race. And with strong grid slots for today’s second encounter in Kent, everyone associated with the team was quietly optimistic.As the lights turned to green to get the 20-lap battle underway in dry conditions, Smith made a flying start and immediately moved up to fifth in his Renault Insurance-backed Clio 197. Pyper’s start wasn’t quite as good and he dropped down to sixth place on the first lap.The positions remained the same until the seventh lap when Smith and Pyper were at the centre of a pack of cars as it headed into Paddock Hill Bend. Sadly, Smith tangled with one of his rivals and picked up some rear beam damage on his car. That dropped him to seventh. However, Pyper kept his nose clean and emerged from the pack in fifth place.The Scotsman, who was racing with all of the Aftersales brands prominently displayed on his car, looked odds on to hold on to his fifth place until he came unstuck on the final lap after tangling with rival Phil Glew on the approach to Surtees.Pyper held the racing line as they entered the fast left-hand bend but contact with Glew spat Pyper sharply off to the left and he crashed head long in to the crash barriers at around 70mph. That was the end of his afternoon and his chances of another strong finish.“Phil was pretty enthusiastic in his efforts to pass me and he tried a bit too hard in the end,” Pyper explained. “It was quite a big impact with the barrier and I’m really disappointed with the way the race ended because it shouldn’t have been like that. I had the racing line, after all.”With fifth place taken from his grasp, Pyper admitted that he had learned a few valuable lessons at Brands Hatch.He said: “This really illustrates that I need to get up to the front end of the grid as quickly as possible because that’s the best place to stay out of trouble. I really believe that the next race at Rockingham will be a different story.”Smith however, faired better in the closing stages of the race and was happy to add a seventh place to the fourth place that he scooped on Saturday afternoon.The Irish youngster was made to work hard for his result, however. “I had the pace in the early stages of the race to finish on the podium but once I picked up the bent rear beam, I really had to battle with the car,” he said. “There was no front end grip and it was a case of trying to keep the car on the track and preserving my tyres.“But the two results I’ve got here are a really solid start to the new season and I’m happy to have got to the end of both races with some decent points. I can’t wait to get to Rockingham now and to have a go at moving further up the grid and hopefully onto the podium.”The next round of the ELF Renault Clio Cup takes place at the 55,000-seater Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northamptonshire on April 12/13.Results1 Ben Winrow        Team Pyro                   18 laps @16m 07.5s2 Paul Rivett          JHR Developments       +0.76s3 Niki Lanik           Miracle Drywash           +5.51s4 Derek Pierce       Robertshaw Racing       +9.36s5 Phil Glew            Full Speed Racing         +11.11s6 Alex MacDowall   Total Control Racing      +13.55s7 Árón Smith       Aftersales Racing       +13.90s8 Carl Bradley       Coastal Racing              +14.39s9 Mike Robinson    Total Control Racing       +16.76s10 Chris Law         Team Pyro                     +18.89s