Loughborough University student Rob Smith is aiming to increase his lead in the ‘Graduate Cup’ class of the Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup when the category resumes this weekend, 19th/20th April, at Donington Park – the 21-year-old’s adopted ‘home’ track.As one of the biggest race meetings of the year for both the Evergreen Tyres-backed driver and his Barwell-based Team Pyro squad, Rob is hoping for some partisan local support as he strives to add to the maiden outright podium finish he achieved at Brands Hatch a fortnight ago.It’s certainly been the best ever start to a Clio Cup season for the third year racer, having adapted fantastically well to the new fourth generation racing Clio which is being utilised in the UK for the first time in 2014. As well as heading the Graduate Cup standings, he also goes into the Donington weekend an excellent third in the overall championship.“Brands was a great weekend for us and the sort of start to the season we were hoping for”, said the Telford driver, “I’m really enjoying the new Clio, it’s much more of a true race car than the previous generation Clio and we seem to have got a good handle on the set-up. Beginning the season on the podium is exactly what we needed and to be leading the Graduate Cup into Donington is great too.”Buoyed by his career-best second place finish during round one of the season, also his maiden win in the Graduate Cup class, Rob continued his great early season form in official testing at Thruxton in Hampshire last week. Lapping just 0.2 seconds shy of the pace in session one, he also completed a strong race-run in the afternoon where lap times remained consistently competitive throughout.In addition to key backers Evergreen Tyres, Grouptyre UK and BMTR, Rob welcomes the Midlands’ leading tyre wholesaler Car Tyrestore to his sponsorship portfolio for the Donington weekend and is confident of a similarly strong outing to that of the season opener.“Donington will be a big weekend for the sponsors and we’re expecting some good support with a lot of guests coming along”, he commented, “I really think we can challenge for the podium again this weekend, the season has started well and as long as we can have a good run in testing and get the set-up nailed we should be looking pretty strong.”Pre-event testing for the Donington Park race weekend will take place on Thursday, 17th April, at the East Midlands track. Following a day of no track action on Good Friday, qualifying for the third and fourth rounds of the Renault UK Clio Cup will be held on Saturday, 19th April, at 14.05.On Easter Sunday, 20th April, the first race will get underway at 10.05 with the second encounter following at approximately 15.45. Round four will be screened live on ITV4 and ITV4 HD with live streaming online at www.itv.com/btcc2014 Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup Driver Standings (after Rd2):3rd Rob Smith, 48pts2014 Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup ‘Graduate Cup’ Standings (after Rd2):1st Rob Smith, 60pts