James Dixon experienced the highs and lows of motorsport in the space of 24 hours at Croft Circuit over the weekend, 18th/19th June - the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK star taking the outright points lead on Saturday before an enforced retirement on Sunday dropped him to third in the title race. Tied at the top of the championship as he arrived in North Yorkshire for the ninth and 10th rounds of the season, the 21-year-old from Stockbury produced a fantastic drive in the opening race to climb from an uncharacteristic 12th on the grid into the top five to lead the standings by two points. Sunday's race, however, ended in disappointment for the Total Control Racing driver when dealt a double blow. Having climbed into sixth place impressively by lap four, James was pitched into a spin on lap six at the exit of Clervaux following contact from Jake Packun. Dropping all the way down to 14th position, the ABP Heating, Weidmuller and The Art of Decorating sponsored driver mounted a terrific recovery drive to make up the lost ground but at the hairpin on lap 11 yet more contact, this time from Josh Files, resulted in damaged steering. "It's not been a brilliant weekend for us", said James, "The damage was done in qualifying really where we didn't get it right and the races were very tough from there. There was a lot of contact, in the second race in particular, but we have to look at the positives. I've learned a lot this weekend on the mechanical side of things with the car so that's good. I've definitely upped my game there. "I'd like to say a big thank you to my sponsors Weidmuller and ABP Heating for travelling up to Croft this weekend to watch me race. It was a long way to come, and I am disappointed I wasn't able to give them a win or a podium this weekend, but I'm very grateful for their help and support - without them I wouldn't be on the grid at all." Qualifying didn't go according to plan for James and TCR when the onset of rain early on meant each driver's second or third lap would be the best time they could do throughout the entire session. Unfortunately, James hadn't posted a sufficiently quick lap by that point, missing the optimum tyre window, and so he had to settle for 12th on the grid for round nine and 11th on the grid for round 10. Saturday afternoon's encounter was red flagged on the second lap due to a car going off into the tyre barriers at the exit of the chicane because of the slippery conditions. By that point, James had risen brilliantly into seventh place from the sixth row of the grid. With several cars unable to take the re-start, James lined-up eighth on the grid and quickly moved into seventh behind chief rival Paul Rivett. Into Tower Bend on lap three though, the Kent racer produced a great pass on the brakes to take sixth - a highly important move. Despite being held-up in the aftermath of contact involving team-mate Mark Proctor and Files at the hairpin on lap five, James did manage to hold on to a top six placing but he soon moved up to fifth at the expense of the aforementioned Files. In the end, the chequered flag was shown early - at the end of lap nine - with James taking fifth just 1.3 seconds shy of the podium. There are now seven long weeks to wait until the next two rounds of AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK action which will take place over the weekend 6th/7th August at Snetterton in Norfolk. Provisional 2011 AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK Championship Standings (after Rd10): 1st Paul Rivett, 224pts; 2nd Aron Smith, 221pts; 3rd James Dixon, 217pts