Jade Developments’ Luke Pinder has continued his dominant start to the Michelin Clio Cup Road Series with another pair of race wins and fastest laps at Thruxton.
Despite not topping the timesheets in qualifying around the high-speed Hampshire circuit, Pinder was able to quickly assume position at the front of the field in both races and took two unopposed victories to continue his 100% record for 2015.
Pinder said: “Let’s hope it stays like this, we’re aiming to try and win every one if we can and the guys at Jade have done a spot-on job again with the car. We didn’t really know what set-up to run, with these cars not having been here before, but they did a fabulous job.”
Behind the dominant victor, thrilling battles took place for the remaining podium places in both races. In the opener, Pinder’s team-mate Jake Honour climbed from sixth on the grid to take the runners-up spot.
Honour did so after a fierce battle with pole-sitter John Creasey, Nic Harrison and Tyler Lidsey, the foursome split by just 1.073 seconds at the flag. Matt Fincham and Sarah Franklin completed the class finishers.
In race two, Creasey held second for the first handful of laps before Nic Harrison got ahead, with Harrison taking his CGH Imports.com-backed Clio to a third class podium of the season so far in second.
Creasey, Lidsey and Honour fought over the final podium spot in the closing stages, with a dramatic incident at the chicane on the last lap between Creasey and Honour sending the latter up onto two wheels briefly.
Lidsey benefitted to sneak through into third for his first podium finish of the year, with Creasey fourth as Honour slipped to sixth behind Fincham, with Franklin completing the finishers a lap down in seventh.
Pinder’s double victory means his class lead now stands at forty points over his Jade Developments team-mate Honour, with Harrison just eight points further back.
2015 Michelin Clio Cup Road Series Points Standings (After Rd.5 of 13):
|
Position |
Driver | Points | Gap |
| 1 | Luke Pinder | 170 | |
|
2 |
Jake Honour | 130 | -40 |
| 3 | Nic Harrison | 122 |
-48 |
|
4 |
Matt Fincham | 105 | -65 |
| 5 | Tyler Lidsey | 97 |
-73 |
|
6 |
Sarah Franklin | 88 | -82 |
| 7 | John Creasey | 87 |
-83 |
