Paul Rivett (Epsom) and Ash Hand (Nuneaton) shared the wins in Oulton Park’s two Renault UK Clio Cup races (Sat 6-Sun 7 June), but two second places for Ant Whorton-Eales (Lichfield) means he leaves the Cheshire circuit with an increased overall championship lead as the title battle now heads to Croft in North Yorkshire in three weeks’ time (Sat 27-Sun 28 June).
WDE Motorsport’s Rivett led Saturday’s opening race all the way but was under intense pressure throughout from SV Racing’s Whorton-Eales and Team Pyro’s Hand as they crossed the line in this order. 20Ten Racing’s Jordan Stilp (Towcester) fought back from an earlier delay to pass Team BMR Restart with Pyro Ashley Sutton (Bishops Stortford) for fourth on the final lap as Charles Ladell (Ipswich) kept up his recent good form with a hard-fought sixth for Team Cooksport.
Sunday’s second race had a touch of controversy about it. Whorton-Eales won on the road but officials later decided a move he’d made to overtake Hand for the lead – their cars made contact – was unfair and awarded him a time penalty which relegated him to second in the result.
Stilp finished close behind this pair in third and, with Whorton-Eales’s penalty applied, the result reads as the closest top-three finish in Clio Cup history (0.357s) – beating the record set at Brands Hatch in April. Rivett took fourth ahead of Ladell in fifth and SVR’s Jack Mitchell in sixth.
The two race results mean Whorton-Eales holds a 21-point championship lead over Hand – now up to second in the standings ahead of Sutton who retired from race two at Oulton with damage to his car following on-track incidents. Rivett and Stilp also remain firmly in contention for the title.
Whorton-Eales commented: “It’s a shame about having my race two win taken off me but two seconds and a bigger championship lead than I had arriving here… I’ll take that. It’s getting hectic out there now, though, as more drivers are finding their feet and getting in on the act and it’s only going to get tougher as the season progresses.”
Hand, now with four wins to his name in 2015, said: “Nobody likes to win because someone got a penalty but I felt Ant’s move on me today was unfair so the decision is right. On saying that I’ve nothing against him – situations are bound to occur when you have competitive drivers fighting for a title as big as the Clio Cup. I’ve been on the podium four races in a row now – let’s see if we can keep that run going at Croft.”
Triple Champion Rivett, whose win on Saturday was his 44th in the Clio Cup, added: “It feels great to open our victory account for 2015 and I feel I could have had a shot at another win in race two had my car not picked up damage. It’s a long season and I’ll be using all my experience to try and grind down the boys in front from now on. I really want that fourth title.”
Elsewhere the wins in the Masters Cup for older drivers at Oulton were shared by 20Ten’s Graham Field (Nottingham) on Saturday and Pyro’s Mark Howard (Oakham) who holds a commanding lead in the class. Pyro continues to lead SVR by 418 points to 355 in the Entrants Trophy although it only stretched its advantage by four points at Oulton.
