The brand-new Scuderia Vittoria racing team has had a hugely encouraging debut race weekend, coming within 0.4 seconds of a podium finish.
Matt Allison and Luke Wright represented the team in the opening round of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup at Brands Hatch, with Allison taking a superb fourth place and Wright unlucky to miss out on what could have been a stunning podium finish in his first-ever weekend in a touring car category.
Wright, who raced in Formula Renault last season, qualified fourth for both races, while Allison, who had contested only one race weekend since spring 2008, was fifth and eighth on the two grids. Both drivers were within 0.2 seconds of pole position in the hotly-contested series, with Wright only 0.064 seconds from the overall fastest time.
Unfortunately, Wright was eliminated when he was hit from behind at the second corner of the first race. Even worse for the team, Allison was also knocked out of the race as a result of the chain reaction, with both cars sustaining identical steering-arm damage.
Undeterred, Wright made a storming start to race two to briefly run three-abreast for the lead, before slotting into third place. He was holding this position comfortably when the race was neutralised by a safety car. That allowed the pack to erase the Dorset teenager’s hard-won podium position. Seven laps after the restart, he ran wide at Clearways and bounced down the order to take an eventual 10th place.
Allison benefited to move up to fifth, and the Norfolk man then grabbed fourth when the second-placed car went out. He challenged ultra-experienced Clio racer Aron Smith for a podium, but there was no way through.
“That was much better, and it’s great to finally get a result on board,” said Matt. “It is nigh-on impossible to overtake on this circuit in a Clio because the braking zones are so small. With four or five laps to go I flicked my headlights on and Aron nearly locked up, but he kept it going! Our car was superb and on a bigger circuit we could have had a go for third, but I’m pleased with that, and most top drivers had one bad result so it’s almost as if we’ve reset the points.”
A disappointed Wright said: “I just dropped the left-rear off the track and it dragged me off. It was an unfortunate error but you’ve got to look at the upsides: we’ve been very competitive.”
Team director Danny Buxton, the former Clio Cup champion who set Scuderia Vittoria up with Piers Masarati and Tom Ferrier, was delighted with the team’s form, if not the outcome of the first race. “Luke had a mega weekend in terms of raw pace, and if it hadn’t been for the incident he would have been P2 in race two,” he said. “But we’re all human and he will learn from this. We’re massively encouraged and think he will be one of the finds of the season.
“Matt had less running before the season and is playing catch-up, but he battled well and brought it home. After yesterday’s result he had to finish. He was quicker than the second and third guys in front but it’s difficult to pass cars here, and he did the right thing in bringing it home.
“From a team point of view, the biggest compliment I can pay everyone is that it seemed as though we’d been doing this for years, rather than it being our first weekend. The team were fantastic. Matt’s car only arrived on Wednesday, and they had late nights on Saturday to repair the damage. They did an amazing job.”
As part of the ultra-popular British Touring Car Championship package, the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup enjoyed live coverage of its second race at Brands Hatch on ITV4 and ITV4 HD, and was streamed live at itv.com/touringcars. The series now moves on to Donington Park, near Derby, for the second round on the weekend of April 16/17.
