Rivett & Coates win at Croft as title race takes a mid-season twist
26th June 2018
RIVETT & COATES WIN AT CROFT AS RENAULT UK
CLIO CUP TITLE RACE TAKES A MID-SEASON TWIST
Paul Rivett (Epsom Downs) and a tearful Max Coates (Scorton) shared the wins in the Renault UK Clio Cup’s latest two rounds at the Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire to take over at the top of the championship from James Dorlin (Barnsley) who, by contrast, suffered a weekend of frustration.
After setting a new qualifying lap record, Team Pyro’s Coates started race one, held on Saturday, from pole position and initially held the lead through the first bend.
However an error by him at the second corner allowed WDE Motorsport’s Rivett to pounce and this proved decisive in the outcome of the race. Rivett would lead all the way with Coates finishing close behind him in second as Daniel Rowbottom (Kidderminster), back with his family’s small DRM team, took third.
Behind, Westbourne Motorsport’s Dorlin finished in sixth place meaning suddenly he had lost his championship lead to both Coates and Rivett.
Race two – broadcast live by ITV4 on Sunday – was a role reversal at the front as Coates, again starting from pole, this time stayed ahead of Rivett for the full 12 laps for a famous and emotional victory in front of his home crowd. He was in tears as he stepped from his car…
Third was Rivett’s team-mate Lee Pattison (Halifax) in a result that helped their WDE team close significantly on Pyro at the head of the Entrants Trophy standings, but for Dorlin the race had ended in retirement on lap one with a punctured tyre.
As a result Coates goes into the mid-season break with a slender six-point lead over Rivett at the top of the championship. Dorlin, the leader arriving at Croft, has fallen to third, some 31 points behind new leader Coates…
Elsewhere Pyro’s Bradley Burns (Farnham) continued his march towards the Graduates Cup crown for younger/first season drivers with two more maximum scores in the class, while his team-mate Jack McCarthy (Bromley), Matrix Motorsport’s Michael Epps (Hemel Hempstead) and MRM’s Jade Edwards (Northampton) were also among those impress in front of a mammoth Croft crowd.
McCarthy produced two stunning comeback ‘19th-to-ninth’ drives from last on the grid after problems in qualifying; Epps and Edwards each equalled their best results to date with a fourth and a seventh. Epps is now up to fifth in the driver’s championship just 15 points adrift of Rowbottom in fourth.
The Renault UK Clio Cup now takes a five-week break before resuming with rounds 11 and 12 of its 2018 season at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk on the weekend of Sat 28/Sun 29 July.
