Podium finishes for Stefan Hodgetts and Ant Whorton-Eales brought Scuderia Vittoria’s 2013 Renault UK Clio Cup campaign to a close on a high in the final rounds at Brands Hatch.
Hodgetts led the way for the team in the weekend’s opening race, holding third from start to finish to notch up his eighth podium of the season.
The KX Akademy member looked set to make it two in two races in Sunday’s live-televised race, however an unfortunate slide behind the safety car ended in contact which sent him into the pitwall and out of the race.
Benefitting from Hodgetts’ incident to take third at the flag was fellow KX protégé Whorton-Eales, having scythed his way through from tenth on the grid to add to a seventh place finish in race one.
Local racer Devon Modell starred in the races. After a great drive through from the back of the grid to fourteenth in race one ended with a frustrating penultimate lap retirement, he repeated the trick in race two, scything his way through to twelfth at the finish.
Josh Wakefield, Ronnie Klos and Finlay Crocker all emerged unscathed from intense on-track battles to finish thirteenth, fifteenth and eighteenth in race one respectively, Klos having battled with a recurrent gear-selection issue throughout.
Wakefield battled to ninth in race two, with Klos second in the Masters class in fifteenth, while Crocker was an early retiree, a tap in the rear sending him into the armco on the inside of Paddock Hill.
Scuderia Vittoria Director Danny Buxton said: “To end the 2013 Renault UK Clio Cup season with such a manic, incident-filled race is a bit disappointing, but I’m absolutely delighted that Ant (Whorton-Eales) emerged from the chaos on the podium. He’s getting good at his starts! He scythed around the outside of quite a few drivers on the first lap and continued driving hard but fairly to achieve another well-deserved third place.
“Both Josh (Wakefield) and Devon (Modell) drove incredibly well too, surging up the order to take respectable finishes and Ronnie’s pace was fantastic too. He came close to the Masters Cup victory today. What happened to Stefan (Hodgetts) and Finlay (Crocker) was unfortunate but it was such a crazy race in very tricky conditions. Nevertheless, SV heads into the winter months in high spirits.”