James Dixon benefitted from first lap chaos to take victory in Round Eleven of the 2011 AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK and with it regain the championship lead, after two of his championship rivals were amongst four frontrunners getting caught up in opening lap incidents at the new Snetterton 300 circuit.
James Colburn, heading into the race fourth in the championship standings, started the race from pole position, but a slow start allow Jack Goff to leap from third on the grid to move alongside him as they headed around the first corner, Riches.
As the pack headed to Montreal, Colburn lost the rear of his car and as he corrected it, those around him were forced to try and avoid him, leading to contact causing substantial damage for Goff, Matt Allison and Aron Smith, the latter two having started fourth and second respectively. While Goff and Colburn could continue, Allison and Smith, who headed into the race second in the points, saw their races over on the opening lap.
Emerging from the carnage in the lead was Dixon, the Total Control Racing driver followed by Luke Wright and Jake Packun. As the front two broke away, Packun held third for most the race, but he was to lose out on lap eight, getting pushed down to fifth place behind local driver Josh Files and Adam Bonham.
Ahead, Wright began closing on Dixon and by the end of lap seven was within a second of the leader, but the Scuderia Vittoria driver was unable to find a way past in the final three laps, leaving Dixon to take his fourth win of the season.
Files held on to third for his first podium of the season and by far his best result of the season, with Bonham taking fourth to match his season's best finish. Get On Track Developments Packun took fifth ahead of championship leader heading into the race Paul Rivett, who was enjoying a great battle with Bonham for fifth early on.
Taking a strong seventh on his Clio Cup debut was Team Pyro's Serbian racer Neb Bursac, finishing ahead of team-mate Craig Currie, who took his second top eight finish of the season. Behind, the recovering Goff and Colburn make it into the top ten on lap five, but were unable to make any further progress, finishing ninth and tenth respectively.
Darren Wilson took the Masters Cup win in eleventh ahead of rival Mark Proctor, who ran in the top ten early on before being given a drive through penalty. Newcomer Tim Sweet was next up, ahead of final finisher Nicolas Hamilton, who had to pit for new tyres early on. Wilson was challenging with series returnee Andy Jordan, however contact between the two on the final lap ended up with Jordan spectacularly rolling three times, writing off his Total Control Racing Clio.
