Ash Hand returned from the summer break refreshed and raring to go again as the fiercely-contested Renault UK Clio Cup resumed for round six at Snetterton in Norfolk last weekendand he duly confirmed his early-season promise by cracking the top five for the first time in his fledgling car racing career.
Hand had concluded the opening half of the campaign with a brace of sixth-place finishes at Croft in June, and he headed to Snetterton eager to build upon that burgeoning momentum in the ITV4-televised, British Touring Car Championship-supporting Clio Cup.
It didnt take me long to settle down and get back into the zone, affirmed the talented young Nuneaton karting graduate. I felt comfortable pretty much straightaway. Snetterton is the longest circuit we visit, and that makes it quite a challenge. Its tricky and technical, and with it being a two-minute lap, just one mistake can really cost you. Its a track I enjoy and we had gone reasonably well there in pre-season testing, thoughand my confidence was certainly up after the way we had signed off at Croft.
Hands qualifying efforts at Snetterton were unfortunately scuppered by a red flag on one of his flying laps and a spinner directly in front of him on another, leaving him an unrepresentative ninth on the grid for race one in his Team Pyro-prepared, Sigma and QTS-backed Clio Renaultsport 200 and sixth for race two amongst the 24 high-calibre competitors.
Convinced the top four had been possible, it was nonetheless a source of considerable encouragement that he was disappointed with only sixth place during his rookie season of car racing, underscoring just how far he has come. That said, overtaking around Snetterton is never easy at the best of timesleaving the rapid Maple Park hotshot facing an uphill struggle.
The first race was absolutely mental! he recollected. I got the revs too high at the start, which left me sat there wheel-spinning and dropped me down to 11th, but that wasnt a disaster and I was able to gradually battle my way back through. I passed Devon Modell for ninth on lap three and set about chasing my team-mate Alex Morgan as we both closed in on the group ahead. There was a lot going on, and Lee Pattison and James Colburn had a coming-together which I was narrowly able to squeeze past to move up to seventh.
On the last lap, it began raining which meant everybody was just tip-toeing around, and another collision promoted me to fifth. It was good to be right up there in the mix and I was obviously pleased with P5 because it marked my best finish so far, but its got to the stage now where I just expect that little bit moreand had I started further up the grid, a podium would definitely have been within reach.
The timing screens corroborated Hands conviction, as the 19-year-old took the chequered flag scarcely a second adrift of the rostrum, right in the midst of a fraught five-way scrap over third. He would showcase his scintillating raw speed once more in race two the following day.
I got a great start to thread my way through the middle of the row in front, but I was then hung out to dry a bit at the first corner and shuffled down to ninth, he recalled. It was a messy opening couple of laps with a lot of rough driving and place-swapping, but I climbed back up to seventh pretty swiftly, after which it was a fairly boring race, to be honest.
I was behind Morgan again, but even though I was quicker than him overall, I wasnt quicker in the places where I needed to be to have a popI was really fast through the corners but lacking outright power, whereas he would pull away from me in a straight line which made for a bit of a stalemate.
Pressurising Morgana race-winner and title contender this yearright the way to the flag, Hand wound up a very solid seventh, setting the fourth-fastest lap of the race and proving to be quickest of all in the first sector of the lap. Whats more, the result vaulted the Warwickshire teenager back into the top ten in the drivers standings in ninth positionby some margin the leading car racing rookieand with only Rockingham and Brands Hatch GP left on the calendar now, he is targeting a stellar end to the season.
Despite the frustrations, Snetterton was another extremely positive weekend overall, he reflected. We are genuinely making massive progress. I went well at Rockingham during testing and am really looking forward to racing there, and after barely scraping into the top ten at Brands Hatch back at the beginning of the campaign, I want to return and demonstrate how much I have improved by fighting up at the sharp end this time. If we can just have a good qualifying session and get the right breaks in the race, a podium is definitely on the cards.
