Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup front-runner Rob Smith is determined to be back to his early season best at Thruxton in Hampshire this weekend, 3rd/4th May, when the fifth and sixth rounds of the 2014 season take place.While the previous two races at Donington Park just over a week ago didn’t go to plan for the Telford driver, he is confident the issues which befell him will be eliminated for the third event of the campaign. Rob is, therefore, sure of a return to the form which delivered a maiden Clio Cup podium at Brands Hatch at the end of March.Going into the Thruxton weekend, the 21-year-old Team Pyro racer is third in the Graduate Cup class standings and seventh overall in the main championship. After a very positive run in officially timed testing at the 2.35-mile track a couple of weeks ago, Rob is certain normal service will be resumed.Lapping within a mere 0.2 seconds of the top of the timesheets in the opening session, and posting the fastest first sector of anyone at that stage, attention turned to race pace in the afternoon run where good progress was made.“I think we can be back to where we were at Brands next weekend, we’ve got some testing before then at Oulton Park so we’ll play with the set-up a bit and that’ll help get everything organised for Thruxton”, he commented, “On paper the official test wasn’t anything special, but our pace in the first session was good from the off and the race pace was strong too.“We were quick out of the blocks on the test day so hopefully that’ll work in our favour as we go straight into qualifying on Saturday without any practice. Thruxton has always been a bit of a bogey track for me in the past, but I loved it during testing so I’m aiming to be back at the sharp end where we’ve shown we can be and should be.”In addition to his regular sponsors Evergreen Tyres, Grouptyre UK and BMTR, for the Thruxton event Rob will also welcome Worcester’s Exhausts Tyres and Batteries back on board as part of his portfolio – ETB having provided support at the corresponding fixture in each of the last two seasons.With no pre-event practice sessions, the Renault UK Clio Cup competitors will head straight into qualifying at 11.20 on Saturday, 3rd May. Both races will be contested on Sunday, 4th May, with round five beginning at 10.40 and round six set to follow at 15.50 – the second of the two encounters will be screened live on ITV4, ITV4 HD and streamed online at www.itv.com/btcc2014 Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup Driver Standings (after Rd4):7th Rob Smith, 70pts2014 Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup ‘Graduate Cup’ Standings (after Rd4):3rd Rob Smith, 96pts