Scuderia Vittoria dominated a weekend of AirAsia Renault Clio Cup racing at Croft, with Matt Allison winning both races and Luke Wright claiming a second place, after the duo had blitzed the field in qualifying to take first and second on the grid.
They were the first Clio Cup victories for Scuderia Vittoria, which was only established before the start of this season, and add to the win the team took at April’s opening round of the British GT Championship with its Ferrari 458 at Oulton Park.
Allison romped to a pair of pole positions on a wet circuit, with Wright second on the grid for race one and third for race two. Allison was never headed in either race, which took place in mainly dry conditions.
The Norfolk man opened an extraordinary gap of three seconds on the opening lap of race one, but had to do it all over again after it was halted due to a heavy accident for Wright, who hit the barriers exiting the fast chicane.
Allison was 2.3 seconds in front at the end of the first lap of the restart, and stayed firm throughout the race as he came under pressure from the closing James Colburn.
“I had a demon start, and felt confident that I could win if I got to the first corner first,” he said. “I had to sit there and stew for a few minutes at the red flag, but I knew I could get a buffer to the rest of the field early on. James is quick and it’s easier to chase than lead, but I was confident he wouldn’t try anything silly.
“I’m really chuffed. We’re just over halfway through my comeback season and this is my first podium and first win, and I’m very happy to win in front of my sponsors Palletforce.”
Allison managed to get in front at the start of race two and had opened up a four-second gap within the first four laps. Wright dropped to fourth on the opening lap, but squeezed past rivals Colburn and Chris Swanwick with some excellent moves. First he dived around the outside of Colburn at the hairpin with an audacious manoeuvre, then he swooped down the inside of Swanwick into Tower Bend for second. While Allison drove to a serene second victory, Wright did a superb job to soak up Colburn’s advances for second and Scuderia Vittoria’s first one-two.
“That was easier than yesterday,” said Allison. “I’m really stoked for the team to get a one-two. Everything clicked this weekend and I’m really pleased to show we’ve got the pace in the dry as well.”
Dorset racer Wright, who took his maiden victory in the Graduate Cup for drivers under the age of 23, was also delighted. “It’s massively overdue,” he said. “My accident was a bit of a whopper yesterday, but I stayed with the team while we rebuilt it and we left the track late at night. I had to get ahead of Chris and I knew I wasn’t quite as quick as James, but if I went steady without making a mistake I could keep ahead of him.”
Team director Danny Buxton, the former Clio Cup champion who set Scuderia Vittoria up with fellow ex-racers Piers Masarati and Tom Ferrier, said: “This is an emotional weekend. Once Matt was so far ahead after the first three laps, we knew it was done and dusted because when he gets to the front, he isn’t going to lose.
“After that it was about making sure we got a podium with Luke. His pace was quick – he set a quicker lap time than Matt – and he defended well. He was so late on the brakes at Tower Bend that there was no way of passing him there, which is a favourite overtaking spot. Now he’ll have total belief that he can do it.
“I can’t quite believe it and it all started in qualifying. The Touring Cars had been out before and I realised from watching them that the tyres were working well on a wet track, but when it got greasy the times dropped off by three to four seconds. So the guys went out to immediately set quick times. Matt did it straight away and that gave him the foundations for both his wins, which were superb.
“Luke got caught out with his inexperience on cold tyres in race one, but as long as he doesn’t make the same mistake again I don’t care – after all, I had some massive shunts in my early days!”
As part of the ultra-popular British Touring Car Championship package, the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup enjoyed live coverage of its second race at Croft on ITV4 and ITV4 HD, and was streamed live at itv.com/touringcars. The series now moves on to Snetterton in Norfolk for the sixth round on the weekend of August 6/7.
