Alex Morgan leads the way in the 2014 Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup as the championship heads to Donington Park this Easter weekend for Rounds Three and Four of the season.
Morgan got his season off to the perfect start three weeks ago at Brands Hatch, the KX Akademy member opening the fourth-generation era of the Clio Cup by converting two pole positions into a pair of race victories.
Those successes have given the SV Racing driver a fifteen point lead at the top of the championship standings, and he will have high hopes of extending that advantage at Donington, where he picked up a pair of top four finishes last season.
The driver to watch heading into Donington though is three-time Clio champion Paul Rivett. Despite barely any pre-season running, the Clio veteran was straight on the pace at Brands in the new machinery, bouncing back from an unfortunate spin in race one to finish a close second in race two.
With more seat time under his belt in the new car, Rivett is sure to be in the hunt for his first wins of the season at Donington, especially having dominated the corresponding meeting last year with a double victory.
Alongside SV, and Rivett’s WDE Motorsport, the other team challenging for race wins at Brands was reigning champions Team Pyro. Surprise package Rob Smith took second in the opener, before Mike Bushell was in the thick of the lead battle in race two, and both should be in the mix once again at Donington.
While Morgan currently holds the SV/KX advantage in the standings, his trio of team-mates will be aiming to get the upper hand in Leicestershire. Josh Cook heads there having got a podium at Brands, while Ant Whorton-Eales came close with a fourth. Ash Hand meanwhile will be aiming for a much-improved run after just ninth and eleventh place finishes.
Two drivers you can never count out as race win contenders meanwhile are category veterans Lee Pattison and James Colburn. Both didn’t have the season openers they’d have hoped for at Brands, so will be aiming to make amends and really kick start their respective title challenges this weekend.
A bakers dozen are set to take to the grid at Donington, and if Brands is anything to go by, the new fourth-generation Clios are sure to produce some fantastic wheel-to-wheel racing around the iconic Leicestershire circuit.
The weekend starts for the teams and drivers with pre-event testing on Thursday, during which they’ll fine tune their set-ups ahead of the one all important qualifying session on Saturday (19 April) at 14:05. Both their races will take place on Sunday, the first at 10:05, the second televised live on ITV4 at 15:47.
The Checkered Flag will be reporting live from Donington Park across the weekend, so keep an eye on the site for all the news and views on the weekend’s action.
