AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK front-runner James Dixon made a winning start to the first event of the 2011 season at his home track, Brands Hatch in Kent, over the weekend, 2nd/3rd April, and heads to Donington Park a fortnight from now a healthy third overall in the driver standings.While making a near perfect start to his title campaign during Saturday afternoon's opening round with his third career Clio Cup victory, the 21-year-old from Stockbury was the unfortunate victim of contact at the first corner of race two on Sunday - ruining his hopes of another podium finish.Nonetheless, the ABP Heating, Weidmuller and The Art of Decorating-backed racer concluded the weekend with a haul of 40 points which places him in the championship top three and only three points shy of second place."Winning the first race was unbelievable, all the guys at TCR gave me a fantastic car and everything went perfectly really", said James, "I made a good start, got the lead and then controlled the race from there. It's always great to start a season with a win, just a shame we had contact in race two."I didn't get the best of starts in Sunday's race and as I went into Paddock I got turned around and there was nothing I could do. I pushed on to try and make up as many places as possible but it was one of those races unfortunately. It's fantastic to have got the first win of the year under my belt though and I'm looking forward to Donington now where I'm aiming for two podiums at least."In qualifying on Saturday morning, James just missed out on pole position for round one by the narrowest of margins - 0.021 seconds to be exact - but his consistency and pace gave him a front row start for both races with his second best time less than a 10th of a second slower than his fastest.At the beginning of round one, he scorched away from second on the grid and immediately moved ahead into the lead before controlling the race faultlessly for the entire 23-lap duration. An accident further behind at Druids Hairpin led to the deployment of the Safety Car but at the re-start on lap six he made no mistakes and continued to head the chasing pack impressively.Under immense pressure throughout, the second-year Clio Cup racer soaked it up and didn't put a wheel wrong as he sealed a popular victory. In fact, the Total Control Racing driver's performance in round one also meant he extended his winning streak at that point to three with his previous two victories coming at Brands Hatch during the final weekend of the 2010 season last October.Sunday's televised second round put a sour note on the weekend for James but he still managed to score eight championship points which could prove crucial at the end of the season. Starting on the front-row again, he was in the middle of a tight scrap into Paddock Hill Bend but was unfortunately hit as he negotiated the corner and tagged into a spin.Luckily recovering, albeit a long way down on the leaders, the TCR man set about minimising the impact on his points total but had to settle for 13th position in the end. Even so, he underlined his pace and racecraft this weekend and laid a marker down as a genuine threat for the 2011 title.Rounds three and four of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK will take place at Donington Park in Leicestershire just two weeks from now, 16th/17th April. As with this weekend's Brands Hatch action, live television coverage of raceday at Donington will be screened on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4, in High Definition on ITV4 HD and online at itv.com/touringcars