Pyro Motorsport's Dave Newsham made it two-for-two at Croft with another lights-to-flag win in the Renault Clio Cup.
It did look briefly as though the 42-year-old may fall behind, as Total Control Racing's Mike Robinson got the better of the start from second place. But it was Newsham, who had taken pole to continue his perfect qualifying record in 2010, who came out ahead as the field filed itself through the opening corners of Clervaux and Hawthorn. Robinson, on the other hand, lost out dropping to fourth behind Lee Pattison and Sam Tordoff.
Well, most of the field managed to file through the opening corners as contact between James Colburn and Jake Packun saw the safety car deployed while a puncture for Rivett saw him forced to pit, returning to the race in last place.
Once the Megane safety car returned to the pits a clean restart by Newsham all but sealed the race result, despite it being extended in distance by a lap. Moving away from Pattison he stretched out a two second lead, including taking the fastest lap of the race – Newsham completing the 'perfect race' trifecta or pole, fastest lap and win (he also won the Driver of the Meeting award from sponsors Elf and Atol.
Like the first race the top four didn't change after the initial re-shuffle of the first corner.
“I nearly had Dave at the first corner but he carried the better momentum to edge out in front,” said second placed Pattison. “After lap four my oil pressure warning light came on so I tried short shifting to help ease it which meant I wasn't able to push as hard as I would have liked.”
Fulvio Mussi finished fifth having passed Newsham's Team Pyro teammate Jeff Smith just after the restart. However, while he was able to keep his finish Mussi was given two points on his license, and the corresponding two place grid drop for the first race when the series returns from summer break at Snetterton on August 7/8.
Dave Newsham, currently on 312 points has a commanding lead over Pattison (231) in the overall points standings, with Tordoff in third (219), he does, however, lead James Colburn in the Graduate standings.
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
