07/05/07

Oulton Park round 5 June 23rd - 24th 2007

Condensed from RenaultSport

Qualifying
Group 1 Richard Cannon 16th.
Group 2 Robert Lawson 4th, Steve Wood 5th, Jim Edwards Jnr 6th, Andrew Herron 11th

Returnee Steve Wood has his best qualifying since joining the clios with a 5th.

The qualifying races saw Richard Cannon ending up in the gravel and having to miss Sunday's race.
In the other race Robert Lawson gained one place to finish 3rd with Jim Edwards in 4th, Steve Wood 6th and Andrew Herron 8th.

A capacity grid of 32 cars began the race at the 2.23-mile Cheshire venue and intermittent rain showers meant the majority started the race on wet weather tyres. All the cars safely negotiated the tight first corner however, contact on the run up Hilltop towards Knickerbrook chicane saw Taylor unlucky to hit the tyre barrier with a heavy impact, spreading debris across the track.

The nature of the incident made recovery of the stricken car difficult and meant the Safety Car was deployed for five laps. Due to timetable restrictions and a circuit noise curfew, the race was reduced to from 12 laps to nine.

As the circuit dried, drivers on wet tyres attempted to preserve them by weaving off line but on the restart Philip House passed Jim Edwards Jnr at Island hairpin to take eighth place. Edwards Jnr then lost out on the following lap to Jordan as he dropped to 10th.

Panayiotou made progress by passing Steve Wood who had dropped down the order to rise to 12th place.

Round six of the ELF Renault Clio Cup takes place at Donington Park National circuit on 14th/15th July.

The results of round five remain provisional pending further judicial review.

Drivers’ Championship standings after Round 5 - provisional
1 Stefan Hodgetts   132 pts
2 Martin Byford       122 pts
3 Robert Lawson     101 pts
4 Ben Winrow          92 pts
5 Ed Pead               84 pts
6 Mark Speller          81 pts
7 Michael Doyle        74 pts
8 Jim Edwards Jnr     70 pts
9 Andrew Jordan       58 pts
10 Jonathan Fildes    46 pts