2011 Renault Clio Cup Season Review

 

This season’s AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK was one of the best in recent times, with Paul Rivett emerging from a superb four way title battle with Aron Smith, James Colburn and James Dixon to win his third Clio Cup championship.

A quick start to the season for Rivett saw him take the early championship lead, the Lumison BlueSquare Data-backed driver taking a win and a podium apiece at the first two rounds at Brands Hatch and Donington Park. Total Control Racing’s Dixon was in touch early on though, taking the other two wins in the first four races.

Irishman Smith stamped his intent on a title charge next time out at Thruxton, the Team Pyro star taking a double victory to put him in contention. The weekend in Hampshire also showed Colburn’s first signs of a title push, the Westbourne Motorsport driver picking up his first podiums of the year.

Over the next four meetings, Rivett stayed in contention despite not picking up a podium finish in eight races, which allowed the other to close up in the championship battle. A win at Oulton Park meant Dixon managed to tie on points at the top, however Stancombe Vehicle Engineering’s Rivett edged back in front after Croft, the duo then switching the championship lead back and forth during the next meeting at Snetterton.

The whole time, Smith and Colburn continued picking up podiums to remain in the fight, meaning heading into the penultimate meeting at Rockingham, the top four in the championship were split by just seventeen points. With Dixon, Smith and Colburn all picking up podiums and Rivett unable too, the top four closed up even more, with Smith taking the championship lead for the first time all season.

This meant that heading into the final weekend at Brands Hatch, the top four were separated by just four points. The opening race saw Colburn take a long-awaited maiden victory to move into the championship lead, with Rivett taking second ahead of Smith, while a lowly tenth place finish for Dixon ended his title hopes. In the final race, 2002 and 2004 champion Rivett used all his experience to take the race win, his first win in six months, and with it the championship glory, third and fourth place proving not to be enough for Smith and Colburn respectively.

As well as with title contender Smith, Team Pyro also enjoyed success with three other drivers during the campaign. Top of the list was Jack Goff, who kept himself on the edge of the championship battle throughout the year with three wins, including a sensational double victory at Rockingham.

 

Fellow Pyro team-mates Josh Files and Adam Bonham were both competitive through the year, Files taking two podiums, while Bonham just missed out on podium glory with best finishes of fourth.

2011 saw the emergence of a new team in the Clio Cup, Scuderia Vittoria. Set up by three ex-racers, including 2001 series champion Danny Buxton, the team ran Matt Allison and Luke Wright for the majority of the season and enjoyed some success.

Former BTCC racer Allison took a double win at Croft, while Wright enjoyed podium joy at Croft and Snetterton. Allison left the series two meetings early though, with Ant Whorton-Eales taking his seat and proving competitive from the start, regularly running in the top eight with a best finish of fifth.

At the start of the season, Total Control Racing were making the headlines when they announced Nicolas Hamilton would be driving for them. The racing rookie enjoyed a strong maiden season, particularly towards the end of the season when he broke into the top ten for the first time.

The team also ran fellow rookie Tom Grice at the start of the season, the newbie taking one podium at Thruxton before he was forced to pull out after five weekends. Just like team-mate Dixon missed out on the main championship on the final weekend, Mark Proctor also agonisingly missed out on a title, losing the Masters Cup class crown in the last race.

Picking up those honours was Darren Wilson, the 20Ten Racing driver enjoying a strong consistent year, picking up a best result of eighth overall. Clio Cup regular Lee Pattison had a good start to the season, taking a podium on the second weekend at Donington Park, however he was to leave the series after the next weekend. This left his JHR Developments seat open and while it remained empty for most the year, Rob Boston entered in it for the final two meetings and ran comfortably in the top ten.

 

Final 2011 AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK Championship Standings:

Position	Driver	Team	Points
1	Paul Rivett	Stancombe Vehicle Engineering	356
2	Aron Smith	Team Pyro	348
3	James Colburn	Westbourne Motorsport	348
4	James Dixon	Total Control Racing	324
5	Jack Goff	Team Pyro	272
6	Jake Packun	Get On Track Developments	255
7	Josh Files	Team Pyro	209
8	Adam Bonham	Team Pyro	198
9	Matt Allison	Scuderia Vittoria	168
10	Tom Grice	Total Control Racing	150
11	Luke Wright	Scuderia Vittoria	145
12	Craig Currie	Team Pyro	136
13	Darren Wilson	20Ten Racing	127
14	Nicolas Hamilton	Total Control Racing	113
15	Mark Proctor	Total Control Racing	105
16	Chris Swanwick	Team Pyro	100
17	Lee Pattison	JHR Developments	85
18	Ant Whorton-Eales	Scuderia Vittoria	68
19	Rob Boston	JHR Developments	51
20	David Dickenson	Team Pyro	49
21	Neb Bursac	Team Pyro	30
22	Andy Gorton	20Ten Racing	30
23	Matthew Munson	Stancombe Vehicle Engineering	15
24	Tim Sweet	20Ten Racing	14
25	Simon Belcher	Handy Motorsport	13
26	Chris Smith	Scuderia Vitorria	10
27	Mark Gibbons	Stancombe Vehicle Engineering	5
28	Andy Jordan	Total Control Racing	0