James Colburn has been handed a raft of penalties after his contact Josh Cook in the opening Renault UK Clio Cup race of the weekend at Rockingham yesterday (6th September) that assisted Cook in losing his championship lead.
Cook had moved up from twelfth on the grid, caused by a ten place grid penalty carried over from Knockhill, to eighth in the opening couple of corners and was challenging Colburn for seventh when contact into Brook chicane sent Cook off track and across the grass.
While Cook was able to recover to tenth at the finish, with Colburn in sixth, post-race the stewards handed a five second penalty to Colburn to demote him to tenth in the classified results behind SV Racing’s Cook.
The Westbourne Motorsport racer was also handed three points on his license, a three point championship penalty and a three place grid drop for the second race of the weekend this afternoon, meaning he will line up sixth.
The Westbourne Motorsport racer feels the penalty is harsh, and is frustrated that Cook’s grid penalty at Knockhill was a factor in the stewards’ decision.
“It was an unfortunate coming together of drivers in a braking zone. Everyone will say I’m one of the least malicious drivers on the Clio Cup grid,” Colburn told TCF.
“We were given a penalty originally, which SV then appealed wasn’t harsh enough as they still feel aggrieved with what happened to Josh at Knockhill.
“It’s frustrating as it was a different driver involved, not me, and I feel I’ve been given the backlash for what happened up there. There’s nothing I can do about it now though and will go into the race today trying to make an improvement.”