Graduate Cup points leader Rob Smith enjoyed a positive Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup test outing at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire , Wednesday, 9th April, with top three pace in the opening session validating his great early season form.Posting a best lap of 1m24.940 seconds (99.85mph) during the first of two 45-minute sessions, the Team Pyro driver concluded the opening run just 0.2 seconds shy of the top of the times and as the fastest driver in the first sector.Aiming to make further progress in the afternoon, improvements weren’t forthcoming unfortunately when understeer hampered the Evergreen Tyres, Grouptyre UK and BMTR-backed racer’s pace. Even so, the 21-year-old ended the day feeling the most buoyant he has from any prior visit to Thruxton.“Session one was good, I was pretty pleased with that”, said the Telford driver, “We bedded in some tyres at first, then came in for some new ones and popped in a decent time. I was two tenths clear of anyone in sector one, which takes you all the way round to Church, more than half the lap, but then I lost the time from there so that was something we needed to work on.“When we put new tyres on in session two, though, the car had loads of understeer. There was a lot of rubber down, there were a lot of marbles all over the place, so maybe there was just too much grip at the rear. Before that we did a race run and the pace didn’t drop off which was good, we were P4 before pitting for the new tyres – so that’s really positive.”Acting as the official pre-event test day for the Thruxton race meeting, which will take place over the weekend 3rd/4th May, today’s outing marked the sole practice the championship contenders will have there before rounds five and six of the season.Working on a good set-up ahead of next month’s return to the 2.35-mile track was, therefore, of vital importance with the Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup drivers having to head straight into qualifying when they revisit Hampshire a few weeks from now.Rob added: “Things were a lot better today than they’ve been previously at Thruxton for us, the pace looks to be there and as long as we put it all together when we come back for the races we’ll be fine. After such a good start to the season at Brands Hatch a couple of weeks ago, and then a strong run in the first session today, we’re looking OK.”The next track action for the Loughborough University student will be a trip to Donington Park in the East Midlands next Thursday, 17th April, for pre-event testing ahead of the second race meeting of the season, rounds three and four, which will take place over Easter weekend, 19th/20th April.

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