New team Scuderia Vittoria had a strong weekend in the second round of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup at Donington Park.Matt Allison took a pair of competitive fifth-place finishes, while teenager Luke Wright qualified an excellent fifth on just his second race weekend in touring car-style machinery in another encouraging performance by the new squad.Allison, with hardly any racing experience since 2008, played a canny game after qualifying eighth for Saturday’s race and sixth for Sunday’s. He immediately got into contention for fifth in the first race, but was hit by young charger Tom Grice in a manoeuvre that relegated him to sixth. Ex-British Touring Car Championship racer Allison then did a great job to fend off a train of cars behind, and was promoted to fifth when Grice was penalised.“I got a heavy knock on the front-right corner, and after that I had more understeer than in qualifying,” he said. “The group in front were doing similar times but they got the jump early on me.”Wright’s fifth place on the grid came to nothing, as he was the innocent victim of an incident with Grice and veteran Lee Pattison at the start. After dropping way down the field, he salvaged 10th place despite damaged steering.In the second race, Allison moved up to fifth early in the race and then closed the gap to the leading runners. He not only finished just 2.245 seconds away from the race winner, but set a better fastest lap that stood as the second fastest of the race.“We set the car up to come on later in the race, but not as late as it actually did!” said Norfolk man Allison. “The speed was there, and in another three or four laps I would have made up more places. But it’s only my second race weekend back after two years away, so we’re going in the right direction. I’m looking forward to the next round at Thruxton – it’s one of my favourite circuits so hopefully we can get that elusive champagne spray!”Wright made strong progress to sixth in the early laps, before losing one position and then consolidating to take seventh. “I think I was a little bit too hard on the tyres in the early laps, because I lost speed halfway through,” said the Dorset driver. “It’s a shame, but I should have qualified better for that race.” Even so, Wright recovered from another clash with Grice to race well. “I was on full lock trying to stay on the track when I got the hit!” he said.“I made a few mistakes in qualifying but it’s all about experience, and I’m still attempting to get races under my belt without getting fired off!”Team director Danny Buxton, the former Clio Cup champion who set Scuderia Vittoria up with Piers Masarati and Tom Ferrier, was impressed with his two drivers. “I thought Matt drove really well and he grew in confidence as the weekend went on,” he said. “The rustiness is going, and that was proved from his second fastest lap in race two – I think his season will really start at Thruxton.“Luke had a mega best lap in qualifying – he’s still learning about looking after the tyres in the races but he was the highest rookie in race two, and that’s impressive. I was also delighted that the guys both kept it together in race one to get good finishes and show strong speed despite damage.”As part of the ultra-popular British Touring Car Championship package, the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup enjoyed live coverage of its second race at Donington Park on ITV4 and ITV4 HD, and was streamed live at itv.com/touringcars. The series now moves on to Thruxton in Hampshire for the third round on the weekend of April 30/May 1.