Rory Collingbourne bounced back from a nightmare qualifying session to impressively record a pair of top eleven finishes in the second meeting of the 2016 Renault UK Clio Cup at Donington Park.
The Team Cooksport racer saw his best times disallowed in qualifying for exceeding track limits, leaving him down in nineteenth and twentieth on the grid for the two races.
Collingbourne responded with a pair of battling drives through the order, climbing up to eleventh in the opener before breaching the top ten for the first time this season with ninth in race two.
“Qualifying was my fault. During testing we used a racing line which was quick, but the officials felt it was exceeding track limits, which meant only our warm-up laps ended up counting towards our grid slot,” explained Collingbourne.
“I got a good start in the first race and managed to make up a couple of positions into the first corner. Then heading down the Craner Curves into the Old Hairpin I got pushed wide on the grass.
“I managed to catch the car, take it down to first gear and continue. I’m not quite sure how we got away with it, especially with the rear wheels on the grass!
“From thereon it was a normal race, I was able to pull some overtakes and move forward. Overall, I was quite happy with the progress.
“I got a monster of a start in the second race and I think we passed six people alone before we’d even reached turn one! Then I had to spend the next five laps defending, it all got pretty hectic out there.
“There was a lot of pushing and shoving but I managed to back them up, and then they started to battle amongst themselves, which allowed me to pull away and establish a gap.
“Overall, I’m really pleased with our race pace – we just need to improve qualifying.”
