A team from Sale Sharks Rugby Club defeated a team of former Renault Clio Cup champions in a 'scrum against the clock' event at Oulton Park. The teams pushed an AirAsia Renault Sport Clio Cup race car over a measured distance on the Cheshire tracks start-finish straight to launch AirAsia's new flight giveaway promotion.
The teams pushed Luke Wright's Scuderia Vittoria Clio across a ten metre distance, which for the Oulton weekend was carrying 'Bali' on its visor strip. This was part of a new promotion from AirAsia, where fans who emailed them with the name of the car carrying the flight destination would receive two return flights to Kuala Lumpur.
First up were the team of Clio Cup champions, comprising two-time champ and current joint-points leader Paul Rivett, Scuderia Vittoria team manager Danny Buxton and current BTCC drivers Dave Newsham and Tom Onslow-Cole. They set an impressive benchmark time of 4.67s.
Next up were the Sale Sharks team, consisting of players Andy Powell and Luther Burrell, the team's Executive Director of Sport Steve Diamond and Head Coach Pete Anglesea. They were unable to match the Clio team, only setting a time of 6.77s.
However, confused by the 2 second time gap, video evidence was consulted and proved a jump start by the race drivers. Forced to run again, they were only able to set a time of 6.94s, retaining Sale Shark's honour. After the competition, which was aired on ITV4 later in the day, the rugby representatives were given a tour of the BTCC and Renault Sport paddocks.
Diamond said: “I would like say a big thank you to Renault Sport for what has been a brilliant day at Oulton Park. It's brilliant for us to have the opportunity to ingrate our two new signings into our activities off the Rugby pitch and I look forward to extending our relationship with the UK's premier racing championships in the future.”
Welsh international and British & Irish Lion Andy Powell added: “It's brilliant to get the opportunity to attend Oulton Park today and I have really enjoyed myself. It's interesting to see the different mindset that drivers have compared to rugby players as they seem to be so calm before a race. I thoroughly enjoyed launching AirAsia's new competition and I'm glad that we managed to redeem ourselves against the drivers in the scrum.”
