to underscore startling progress
Ash Hand confirmed his remarkable transformation from car racing rookie to regular front-runner as the fiercely-contested Renault UK Clio Cup visited Rockingham in Northamptonshire – where a determined drive earned the talented young Nuneaton karting graduate a well-deserved maiden podium finish.
Having successfully cracked the top five for the first time six weeks earlier at Snetterton, Hand returned to the cockpit of his Team Pyro-prepared, Sigma and QTS-backed Clio Renaultsport 200 fired-up to maintain his burgeoning momentum in the one-make, British Touring Car Championship support series.
“I had done a couple of track days during the break with my mentor Phil Glew and had gained a good understanding of the Clio around Rockingham,” he revealed. “That left me feeling really optimistic going into the race weekend. It’s a circuit that I love, too – the tight-and-twisty infield section reminds me a lot of a kart track, and combined with the high-speed banking, there’s nowhere else quite like it. It represents a unique challenge.”
After lapping a competitive sixth-quickest amongst the 25 high-calibre contenders during practice – a mere four tenths of a second shy of the leading pace – Hand looked poised to deliver an even better result in qualifying as he sat P2 on the timesheets with only a handful of minutes remaining.
Unfortunately, a number of slick-shod rivals were able to take advantage of the drying track towards the end of the session and bump the rapid Maple Park hotshot down the order to seventh – albeit still right in the mix, and ahead of multiple Clio Cup Champion and current title protagonist Paul Rivett.
“The unpredictable conditions in qualifying meant the grid was quite jumbled-up,” he explained, “and everything got a bit messy going into Turn One in the first race. I found myself boxed-in and was knocked briefly sideways, and the upshot was that I exited the corner all the way down at the wrong end of the top 20.
“My approach from that point on was just to push as hard as I could to regain as much ground as I could – and that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t hang about and pulled off quite a few passing manoeuvres, but by the time I had recovered as far as the top ten, my tyres were completely shot and it was actually quite a struggle to hold onto my position over the last couple of laps. I had to dig really deep to stave off the guys behind.”
Hand’s superb overtaking prowess has been one of his undisputed fortés in 2013, and he even opportunistically snatched two positions for the price of just one into Tarzan Hairpin on lap three as he grittily clawed his way up through the order. His spirited effort saw the 19-year-old rewarded with a ninth-place finish, and left him justifiably pleased with his stirring fightback and eye-catching turn-of-speed.
In the ITV4 live-televised encounter the following day, Hand demonstrated that lessons had been well-and-truly learned as he resolutely held his nerve on the inside line heading into Turn One for the first time. Whilst the combination of a slippery track surface and slick tyres caught out a number of more experienced competitors, the Warwickshire teenager didn’t put so much as a wheel out-of-place.
“It was difficult to get enough heat into the tyres on the warming-up lap, but after doing the best job I could, I was hopeful of having more grip than some of the others around me going into the first corner,” he related. “I also knew I had to be more aggressive and really attack at the start after what had happened the previous day – there’s no time for making friends out there.
“That strategy worked perfectly, and I came out of the corner in fourth place. After that, it was quite a sensible race, to be honest; I knew we had decent speed and I gained a couple of positions through a collision ahead, although I didn’t put up too stern a defence against my team-mate Josh Files when he came up behind me, given he is battling for the championship.”
The fastest man on the circuit in the latter stages as he hauled the two leaders back in, Hand flashed past the chequered flag less than two seconds shy of victory – and every bit as impressively, more than six seconds clear of his closest pursuer. Having been targeting and threatening just such a result for a while, he knows his Rockingham performance has put him firmly on the map – whilst at the same time consolidating his excellent ninth position in the overall standings and fifth in the Graduate Cup.
“I was obviously really happy to finish on the podium,” he acknowledged, describing it as the highlight of his fledgling car racing career to-date. “It’s definitely boosted my confidence ahead of the season finale at Brands Hatch next month; I feel like I’m really settling down into the championship now and that the other drivers are starting to regard me in a different light and treat me with more respect out on-track. The goal for Brands has to be to try to do even better – and really sign off on a positive note.”
Click here for the Official Renaultsport web site - designed and built by Racecar
