Rob Smith failed to capitalise on a strong qualifying session in the Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup at Thruxton, with the Team Pyro racer only able to card one top ten finish.
Smith headed into the weekend hoping to return to the podium form he produced in the season opener at Brands Hatch, and put himself in podium contention by qualifying fourth and seventh.
With a new clutch in his Clio, the 21 year old unfortunately stalled on the grid at the start of the opening race. Benefitting from a mid-race safety car period, he eventually climbed up to eighth at the finish, before tyre wear and understeer problems left him with an eleventh place finish in race two.
“We were quick with a qualifying set-up on the car on Saturday, I was really happy with fourth and seventh for the two grids and looking forward to the races,” said Rob. “I seemed to struggle more than my team-mates with tyre degradation though, the set-up I like seems to create a lot of understeer and at a track like Thruxton that just destroys the tyres.”
“It’s been a tough weekend, the Pyro guys did a great job as always but I’ve just struggled in the races. I made a couple of bad starts, which didn’t help matters, and in a championship as competitive as Clios it’s hard to recover from that.”
