Renault UK Clio Cup championship leader Josh Files put himself in the best position to extend his advantage at the top of the points with a dominant double pole position in qualifying for Rounds 11 and 12 at Snetterton.
It didn’t prove to be a straightforward session for the Norwich-based racer at his home circuit though, with him twice finding his best times expunged early in the session after being adjudged to have exceeded track limits.
The Team Pyro ace fought back though, with his best lap time of 2m 09.677s giving him race one pole by an impressive 0.4 seconds, while his second best time of 2m 10.094s made it a superb double.
“We’ve set the car up really well this weekend, as Pyro always do, and it’s looking great with the double pole. Snetterton is a great track, my home track, and I’m glad to be on pole,” said Files.
Files will be joined on the front row for both races by chief title rival Paul Rivett, the three-time Clio champion bouncing back well after a broken gear linkage in his Stancombe Vehicle Engineering car stopped him getting any meaningful running in Friday testing.
James Colburn and Alex Morgan took third and fourth for both races respectively, with Josh Cook fifth for race one, and a frustrating tenth for race two.
The next three places on the grid for race one are taken up by Scuderia Vittoria’s KX Akademy members Ant Whorton-Eales, Mike Bushell and Stefan Hodgetts, the trio incredibly being split by just 0.022s. The trio line up sixth, fifth and eighth respectively for race two.
Having problems in the session meanwhile were Jake Giddings, his Clio suffering an oil leak that led to an early red flag stoppage, and Finlay Crocker, who encountered problems with a broken gear lever.
Full qualifying results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/toca/2013/133103cli.pdf
