15/10/2007

2007 Clio Cup Team Champions, Lawson 3rd finishes 3rd in championship,

Edwards bows out with a win and first podium for Herron!

Race 1
Two podium finishes for JHR Developments’ duo Edwards Jnr and Andrew Herron (Dromore) ensured the Dronfield-based team clinched the Entrants’ title with one race to spare.
An oil spill at Club chicane put paid to five of the race’s leading eight drivers, including title contenders Stefan Hodgetts (Redditch), Robert Lawson (Richmond, N Yorks), and Ben Winrow (Earls Barton).
Lawson made a perfect start from pole position as Edwards Jnr and Árón Smith (Rathfarnham) dropped back on the opening lap. Lawson led by 1.8s at the end of lap one but the Safety Car was deployed following two separate incidents that left Derek Pierce (West Kilbride), Chris Law (Guernsey) and Michael Doyle (Gartocharn) out of the race and Jonathan Fildes, Alex MacDowall (Carlisle) and Carl Bradley (Morecambe) well down the 32-car field.
Edwards Jnr dropped one place to third ahead of Winrow, with double race-winner Paul Rivett in sixth ahead of Árón Smith.
At the restart on lap six, Lawson stayed just ahead of Hodgetts but was forced to defend at the chicane on successive laps as Hodgetts made use of the slipstream up Woodham Hill. A coming together between Smith and team-mate Ed Pead (Northampton) saw Pead drop to 19th as Smith was passed by Niki Lanik (Ashurst Wood), while Rivett passed Byford for fifth place.
As the leading duo broke away from the field, fourth-placed Winrow made a slow exit from Club chicane allowing Rivett to pass into Allard. Byford and Lanik also found their way past on lap nine, with Rivet immediately closing onto the rear bumper of his JHR Developments team-mate Edwards Jnr.
In midfield, Fildes and PH Motorsport’s Philip House (Harrogate) reached the top 16, while Lawson set the fastest lap of the race at 1min 24.710s (100.12mph). Meanwhile, Ed Pead had recovered to 15th place, going on to finish eighth.
Lap 11 saw a change for the race lead as Hodgetts drafted behind Lawson up Woodham Hill before moving to the outside as they entered the right-left-right chicane. Forcing his way through at the second apex, Hodgetts took the lead and was on course to reduce Byford’s championship lead to just 10 points.
Disaster struck for the race leader on lap 12 as, ironically, his team-mate Robert Brown (Billericay) hit the kerb at the chicane and broke his sump, dropping oil on the racing line. Hodgetts was the first of the leaders to encounter the slippery surface on the following tour, his slick race tyres leaving him no chance of avoiding sliding off the circuit and ending his race and championship bid in the tyre wall.
Lawson, Rivett, Lanik and Winrow were also unable to avoid the same fate as marshals attempted to warn the drivers, while third-placed Edwards Jnr, fifth-placed Byford and eighth-placed Andrew Herron spotted the warning flag and safely negotiated the chicane to claim the podium positions as the Clerk of the Course deployed the red flag to end the race.
The result leaves Byford with a 50-point lead over Hodgetts with a maximum 34 available from the 12th and final round on Sunday, 14th October. The number of retirees also resulted in season-high top-10 finishes for David Shepherd in sixth, Alex Osborne (Northampton) in seventh, James Williams in ninth and Steve Wood in 10th.

Race-winner Edwards Jnr said: “It’s an absolutely fantastic way to end the year and makes all the hard work this season from myself and the team worthwhile. It’s a slightly lucky way to win the race but for once my pace over the weekend had put me in position to benefit from the luck. I pulled a lap out of the bag late in qualifying to get second on the grid and pole for round 12 and made the most of it in the race today.”
Third placed Herron, scoring the first podium of his debut season in car racing, said: “I feel as though a podium finish has been coming but I didn’t quite expect it to happen this way. I had the pace today to run with the leaders and made up a couple of places early on. Everyone needs a bit of luck from time to time and the luck shone on me today. This gives me the confidence to believe I can run at the front.”

A third place in race 2 by Robert Lawson secured him third place in the overall drivers’ standings behind Martin Byford and Stefan Hodgetts.
With the inaugural title using the New Clio Cup race car already secure, Byford was looking for his first victory of the season and from fifth on the grid he took the lead on lap one from Kangaroo International/SMC Renault/JHR’s pole-sitter Jim Edwards Jnr (Maidenhead) who dropped to fourth. Hodgetts came through from seventh on the grid to lie second with Lawson maintaining third.
PH Motorsport’s Philip House (Harrogate) made the best start of all to rise from 18th on the grid to 10th, while Total Control Racing’s Jonathan Fildes (Co Meath) gained three places to ninth before the Safety Car was deployed. When racing resumed on lap four, Byford and Hodgetts broke away from Lawson, while Fildes was involved in an incident at the Complex that ended his race prematurely.
On lap four, Mardi Gras Motorsport’s Ed Pead (Northampton) passed JHR Developments’ double former champion Paul Rivet (Banstead) for seventh, while Andrew Herron (Dromore) gained two places to ninth. Lap six saw Pead gain another place by passing Youth 4 Human Rights with SVE’s Niki Lanik (Ashurst Wood), but contact made by Pead in completing the pass at Club chicane was later penalised by the Clerk of the Course with a two-second penalty, effectively reversing the positions.
The Safety Car was deployed at the end of lap 9 but while the cars were allowed to race until they reached the start/finish line, Hodgetts capitalised on a small mistake by Byford to take the lead at Goodwood. Rivett also slipped back on lap nine as both House and Herron gained a position.
The Safety Car then came out to enable the recovery of In Tune with Robertshaw Racing’s Michael Doyle’s car, after he had a heavy impact at Noble having been running in a solid 11th place. Following three laps behind the Safety Car, the restart came on lap 13 with only three racing laps remained with Byford intent on passing Hodgetts to claim his first win of the season.
Lawson kept pace with the leading duo as Edwards Jnr fended off the attention of Mardi Gras Motorsport duo Árón Smith (Rathfarnham) and Ed Pead. Entering the Complex on lap 14, Smith nudged Pead into Edwards Jnr, both drivers taking to the grass as Smith negotiated the corner but lost places to Rivett and Herron.
Edwards Jnr remarkably kept fourth place, while Pead dropped down the order on successive laps to finish 19th. His two-second penalty moved him to 21st behind Lanik, replicating their positions prior to the contact on lap six. The final lap saw more drama as the cars raced up Woodham Hill towards Club chicane for the final time. At speeds of approximately 120mph, slight contact between House and Pead saw both cars spin, the unlucky Andrew Herron caught up in the incident.
Untroubled by the events unfolding in midfield, the leaders raced through the chicane with Hodgetts cleverly holding the middle of the road to take the victory ahead of Byford by a mere 0.381s with Lawson just behind in third.
Edwards Jnr’s fourth place came under threat in the final turns from team-mate Rivett, the 2000 Clio Cup champion edging out the 2002 and 2004 champion by just 0.090s.
Third-placed Lawson, in only his second year of racing, commented: “I’ve had a really good season with my first win at Snetterton. It’s a shame I had a couple of couple of non-finishes, especially yesterday with the oil on the circuit, as that hurt my championship hopes. Today’s race was very close and nice for the top three in the championship to stand on the podium at the final round.”

Drivers’ standings after round 12 – provisional

1 Martin Byford GBR Z Speed Racing 284 pts
2 Stefan Hodgetts GBR Momo UK 236 pts
3 Robert Lawson GBR JHR Developments 228 pts
4 Jim Edwards Jnr GBR Kangaroo Int/SMC Renault/JHR 182 pts
5 Ed Pead GBR Mardi Gras Motorsport 174 pts
6 Ben Winrow GBR Total Control Racing 173 pts
7 Michael Doyle GBR In Tune with Robertshaw Racing 156 pts
8 Chris Dymond GBR Robertshaw Racing 119 pts
9 Andrew Herron GBR JHR Developments 117 pts
10 Mark Speller GBR Full Speed Racing 116 pts