James Dixon has his sights set firmly on a strong showing this weekend as the ELF Renault Clio Cup heads to Croft for the ninth and tenth rounds.
The twenty-year-old made his debut at Rockingham, the second event of the season after signing with Total Control Racing, after a solid showing at the Northamptonshire circuit a pre-event accident ruled him out of the next round at Brands Hatch.
The two official test days leading up to Oulton Park saw Dixon impress after he posted the second fastest time on the new Grand Prix layout. The following week he finished second again at Snetterton, just 0.097 seconds adrift of TCR team-mate Sam Tordoff.
Oulton Park saw the best finish so far as he finished eighth during round seven, but now he’s looking to build on that performance this weekend.
“I'm really enjoying working with such an established and successful team as TCR”, he said, “So far we've shown some very promising test times and it was just such a shame we had the accident during the practice at Brands Hatch. Everything was going fantastically well up until that point – still, we showed what we could do!”
“Since then, we had a good run at Oulton Park and I'm hoping for our best weekend yet in Clios at Croft next time out. TCR is the first team I've worked with in my career which has so much potential and communication between the drivers, I'm thoroughly enjoying my new career direction in saloons and I'm going to take full advantage of the opportunity.”
Prior to this season Dixon’s motor sport career saw him rise up through the ranks of karting in to Formula Renault in 2008, but due to the costs of single-seater racing his progression stalled, this was when he made the decision to switch to tin-tops and enter the Renault Clio Cup for 2010.
“In terms of racecraft, I'm still learning how to adapt to the tin-tops as a completely different approach is required from single-seater racing”, added James, “I've also found conserving tyres for the duration of the races to be quite challenging due to the cars being front-wheel drive and my past experience being rear-wheel drive.”
“It's a big plus for me to have two quick, experienced team-mates like Sam (Tordoff) and Mike (Robinson) as we're able to share data and information. All of this has really benefitted me so far this season and the aim now is to keep building on that and moving forward.”
Photo credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
