Michelin Clio Cup Series

Herbert Battles Through To Complete Rockingham Double

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Luke Herbert has taken his fifth win in the Michelin Clio Cup Series with Protyre with a battling victory in Round Six of the series at Rockingham.

Fresh from victory in the weekend’s opening race the previous day, Herbert fought back after slipping to third early on to take the win, with erstwhile race-leader Peter Felix forced to settle for third.

The morning’s qualifying session had seen Herbert once again topping the timesheets, just like he had done earlier in the weekend, however this time he was only narrowly fastest, his best time of 1m 31.3292s being just 0.080s quicker than Andy Jordan’s best effort.

A slow getaway for the pole-sitter allowed Jordan and a fast-starting Felix to draw alongside him heading around the banking, with the trio running three abreast on the run to Deene. Herbert ducked out of the middle of the sandwich in the braking zone, leaving Felix on the inside to take the race lead, with Jordan slotting into second.

Herbert slid down the inside of Jordan at Tarzan later in the lap to grab second, with his attentions soon on regaining the lead from Felix in front. Herbert made his challenge on lap six at Tarzan, forcing his way down the inside.

Felix fought back on the outside line though and retained the lead on the run to the final Brook chicane, however a better run onto the banking for Herbert saw him take the inside around turn one into the lead, with Jordan following him through into second.

Herbert started edging clear almost straight away, leaving Jordan to fend off Felix and Darren Wilson for second, the former Renault UK Clio Cup racer having benefitted from the battling in front to latch onto his 20Ten Racing team-mate’s bumper.

Wilson sneaked past Felix at Deene on the penultimate lap to take third, however his hold on a podium position would prove to be a short-lived affair, with an unfortunate spin at the Brook chicane dropping him down to seventh.

Having no such drama in front meanwhile was Herbert, the reigning Ma5da MX5 Cup champion enjoying a comfortable run to the line to take victory by 4.1s from Jordan, with Felix benefitting from his team-mates woes to complete the podium in third.

Brett Lidsey and James Weston took fourth and fifth respectively, both having run in formation behind Wilson throughout before his problem. Wilson meanwhile finished up sixth at the flag after passing Ian Jordan on the final lap, Jordan taking seventh ahead of David Pierce and Jason Tarling.

In the ‘roadcar’ class, Tommy Ostgaard took pole position from team-mate Sam Randon once again, and the SWB Motorsport team-mates started an early race battle once again. Randon snatched the lead on the opening lap, with Ostgaard working his way back past a lap later.

Unlike in the opening race of the weekend, where Ostgaard found himself in a battle throughout the first half of the race, the Norwegian was build a comfortable lead over Randon early on this time around, going on to win the class by over two seconds. The class’ third entrant Jake Honour meanwhile pulled into the pits and retired at half distance with a mechanical problem.

Full race results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/barc/2013/133221cls.pdf

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Simon is an experienced journalist and PR officer, who has worked in the national motorsport paddocks for over a decade, primarily on the BTCC support package.
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