Telfords Rob Smith heads into the penultimate race meeting of his maiden season in the AirAsia Renault UK Clio Cup at Silverstone this weekend, 6th/7th October, knowing just slight improvements to his qualifying pace could well lead to his first double top 10 points finish of the campaign.Off the back of one of his best performances of the year at Rockingham just over a week ago, where he scythed his way into the top 10 from 19th on the grid, the Total Control Racing driver has shown he can comfortably run among the upper order in race conditions.Unfortunately for the Shropshire 20-year-old, qualifying hasnt been as fruitful and with the Clio Cup being such a massively competitive series just a few tenths of a second are all it takes to mean the difference between starting inside the coveted top 10 or outside the top 15.With good past knowledge of Silverstones short 1.64-mile National Circuit though, from his days racing in Formula Ford, and buoyed by his terrific drive through the order in round 11 at Rockingham, the Loughborough University student is focusing on making a big step forward in the all-important qualifying session at the weekend.Qualifying really will be make or break, said Rob, We need to get a decent run on new tyres in the Friday practice, Im still learning how to get the best out of those, and then the aim in qualifying will be to try and get a tow as itll be hundredths of a second were after rather than tenths of a second on such a short track. Just a few hundredths could make the difference of four or five places.Our race pace is quite strong, were happy with that, but we just havent been able to go the amount quicker in qualifying that the top guys can on the new tyres. Thats the biggest thing we need to sort out, if we do that then, in theory, we wont have to work as hard in the races. We have to get as close to the top 10 as we can in qualifying and then get stuck in from there.In addition to his regular support from Goodride Performance Tyres and Grouptyre, for the two Silverstone races the saloon car rookie will also be backed by High Wycombe-based Grouptyre Wholesale Ltd which predominantly provides a superior delivery service across Northamptonshire, the Home Counties and North London.Going into Silverstone 18th in the driver standings, out of 27 registered competitors, Rob is only 28 points outside the championship top 12 and is also ninth in the Rookie Cup classjust nine points shy of the top six.

After official testing on Friday, 5th October, AirAsia Renault UK Clio Cup qualifying will take place at 14.05 on Saturday, 6th October, with both races following on Sunday, 7th October. Round 13 will get underway at 09.45 with round 14, which will be screened live on ITV4, ITV4 HD and streamed online at www.itv.com/btcc, beginning at 16.25.2012 AirAsia Renault UK Clio Cup Driver Standings (after Rd12):18th Rob Smith, 71pts2012 AirAsia Renault UK Clio Cup Rookie Cup Standings (after Rd12):9th Rob Smith, 71pts