David Dickenson made it two victories in the opening three rounds of the 2014 Michelin Clio Cup Race Series with the first win of the day at Oulton Park yesterday (17th March).
In glorious sunshine, Mike Robinson shaded Dickenson by just 0.097 seconds to claim pole position in qualifying, however the Total Control Racing ace was beaten off the line by the Pyro driver.
As Dickenson led away, Tommy Ostgaard slotted into third behind Robinson, however a mistake at Knickerbrook lost him ground to promote Andy Jordan into the top three.
Former BTCC racer Jeff Smith made a superb start from eighth on the grid meanwhile on his debut in the series, quickly climbing into podium contention. Jordan had to fight hard to keep the experienced racer behind, allowing Ollie Pidgley and Luke Herbert to join the pack.
At the front, Dickenson wasn’t putting a wheel wrong and managed to see off Robinson by 0.3 seconds for the victory, however the runner-up did claim the points for fastest lap.
“Mike [Robinson] got the jump on me at Rockingham when I was on pole, so that had been nagging at me since – I had to get a good start here,” said Dickenson. “He didn’t give up at any point, he was always there, but it’s great racing against someone like Mike – I don’t think we touched once.”
As a faultless drive for Jordan earned him his first podium of the season in third, shuffling in the pack behind saw Pidgley briefly hold fourth before Smith grabbed the place to cap off a strong debut.
Pidgey took fifth, just edging Pete Bennett, Paul Streather and Herbert, with just 1.6 seconds splitting Jordan in second to Herbert in eighth. Ostgaard eventually took tenth at the finish behind Brett Lidsey, with Tom Butler and Sam Randon completing the finishers.
The result was declared at the end of nine laps due to a late red flag after an excursion for Jacques Mizzi, the only retirement of the race.
Full race results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/barc/2014/142021cls.pdf