Front-running Renault UK Clio Cup outfit Scuderia Vittoria endured a disappointing weekend during the second weekend of the 2013 season at Donington Park.
KX Akademy member Ant Whorton-Eales was the team’s best performer, qualifying a strong eighth. The opening race saw him reach fifth in the first two corners, though he was pushed wide at the Old Hairpin, dropping him outside the top ten, eventually finishing eleventh.
The second race saw an even better opening lap see AWE up to second, however another moment at the Old Hairpin on lap three saw him run off track, making contact with a rival on his return. Once again falling to the edge of the top ten, this time he was able to produce a dogged recovery to finish fifth.
Championship hopeful Stefan Hodgetts had a tough weekend, starting when his on-board fire extinguisher emptied its contents during qualifying. Leading him fourteenth on the grid, a strong opening race saw him scythe his way through to eighth place, though this was followed up with a disappointing race two retirement, the KX Akademy star one of many drivers caught up in a chaotic race.
One of the surprise packages of the weekend was Josh Wakefield, the British GT4 graduate following up a fifteenth place finish in the opening race with a storming drive to ninth in race two.
One Call Insurance-backed Ronnie Klos took nineteenth in the opening race, before being another victim of contact in race two, being taken out of the race while running at the bottom end of the top ten.
Fellow One Call driver Finlay Crocker span out of the opening race, bouncing back to finish eighteenth in race two, while the team’s final driver Devon Modell also bounced back from a race one retirement to finish twelfth in race two, only his fourth ever car race.
“It seems at the moment we can’t buy any luck, although there are some positives to take,” said Scuderia Vittoria Director, Danny Buxton. “Ant Whorton-Eales got a great start but his inexperience was his downfall. The big positive of the day has to be Wakefield’s drive from 18th on the grid to ninth. It all kicked off around him but he drove a mature race and showed a lot of grit and determination, although Crocker also had a really positive race and was only three tenths off the front-running pace.
“Ronnie Klos ran as high as tenth before being taken off in the aftermath of another accident and I can only repeat what I said after Brands Hatch’s season opener; It’s another case of onwards and upwards.”
