Ant Whorton-Eales has been crowned the 2016 Renault UK Clio Cup champion following a dramatic season finale at Brands Hatch GP, with his title rival Mike Bushell crucially an early casualty.
The race defining moment came on the restart lap following an early safety car period, which came after George Jackson ended in the Stirlings gravel trap on lap one.
Whorton-Eales took the restart at the head of the pack after jumping poleman Bushell off the line, but a determined Paul Rivett tried to storm past both immediately at Druids.
Successfully picking off Bushell, Rivett then slammed the rear of Whorton-Eales into Graham Hill Bend, sending the championship leader completely sideways.
As he recovered to the circuit he inadvertently tagged the rear of Bushell, sending his adversary into the barriers on the Cooper Straight and out of the race.
From that moment on the championship was settled, with Whorton-Eales nursing his car home to seventh at the flag to secure the crown.
The race was brought to a premature conclusion meanwhile, with a red flag coming after Whorton-Eales team-mate Luke Kidsley rolled his car multiple times after hitting the barriers at Sheene.
The race-winner through all this was Josh Price, who led after the Bushell incident and maintained his lead for the remainder of the race for his first victory, having narrowly missed out in race one.
Max Coates passed Charlie Ladell two laps from the end to bring his season to a close in second place, with Ladell completing the top three for his second rostrum of the year.
Senna Proctor took fourth ahead of James Colburn, the latter taking his best result of his two weekend return to the series, with Paul Streather completing the top six.
Team Cooksport duo Lee Pattison and Rory Collingbourne took the flag behind Whorton-Eales, with Chris Smiley completing the top ten ahead of Paul Rivett.
Post-race Rivett was handed a thirty second time penalty and three penalty points on his license for his part in the race defining incident, demoting him to sixteenth in the classified results.
