Simon Belcher took his Masters Cup podium tally into double figures with a pair of rostrum finishes in Rounds 11 and 12 of the 2013 Renault UK Clio Cup at Snetterton.
The opening race didn’t go entirely to plan for the Handy Motorsport with Pyro racer, with a slow puncture on his Clio leaving him unable to challenge for the class win. Despite this though, troubles for his rivals meant Belcher was still able to bring his Clio home second in class.
A fantastic start to the second race saw the KARCHER-backed racer initially storm from eighteenth on the grid into the top ten heading into Montreal, however an accident in front forced Belcher onto the grass, losing him ground.
After losing out again at the next corner, Belcher emerged fourth in class, a long way off the next group of cars. Chipping away at the gap, Belcher caught and passed two of his rivals to take another second in class, extending his class lead to 23 points with four races remaining.
“We didn’t do a good job in qualifying, I was really disappointed with it – it’s where your weekend is set up so we had a hard task,” said the 39-year-old. “I made a good start to race one, but then got boxed-in, and the right-rear puncture slowed us by about a second a lap, each lap, all the way to the end. We still managed to pick up second in class, though, which was really important for the points.
“I had a flying start to race two. I kept it nailed around the outside and we were well up into the top 10, probably about seventh or eighth, by the second corner where a guy in front got spun round. There was room for me on the outside but Lee [Pattison] went there too, there wasn’t room for both of us and I ended up on the grass.
“At the next corner there were cars all over the track, I had to check-up and almost come to a complete stop so at that point we were a long way down and fourth in class. You never give up though in motorsport, just keep going and hope things come back to you, which they did. We got second in class again which is great, picking up these results is all we need right now.”
