Ant Whorton-Eales has completed a double victory in the Renault UK Clio Cup at Thruxton after benefitting from a five second penalty for erstwhile leader Mike Bushell to snatch the Round Six win.
Bushell looked set to take his first win of the season in the live-televised encounter in Hampshire, having produced a superb drive to break the tow immediately and edge clear of the pack.
With four laps to go his advantage over Whorton-Eales had risen to four seconds, but that wouldn’t prove to be enough when he was hit with a penalty in the closing stages for exceeding track limits.
The Team Pyro ace needed to extend his lead by another second to retain his win, but with Whorton-Eales matching his pace, it was the JamSport Racing man who emerged victorious.
Paul Rivett had run second early on but under pressure from Whorton-Eales, he suffered a huge sideways moment at the back of the circuit, dropping him down to eleventh.
That promoted Josh Price into third, a position he comfortably maintained for the remainder of the race to complete a breakthrough double podium finish this weekend.
A strong run for Anton Spires saw him run in fourth for a large portion, however Lee Pattison grabbed the place on the final lap to help maintain his top three championship standing.
Fifth still marked Spires’ best result of the season so far, with Paul Streather battling to a strong sixth at the finish on a circuit he’s earmarked as his worst on the calendar.
David Dickenson was next up ahead of the recovering Rivett, with eighth enough to keep him at the top of the championship heading to Oulton Park in four weeks’ time (04/05 June).
Senna Proctor and Max Coates rounded out the top ten ahead of Charlie Ladell, Ollie Pidgley and Jake Giddings, the latter ending his one-off return to the series with a subdued thirteenth.
Enduring another tough race was Dan Zelos, underlying problems from his heavy race one accident causing a trip to the pitlane – where he was joined by Daniel Rowbottom who also hit trouble.
Full race results can be found here.