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Frustration Continues For Unlucky Fildes at Rockingham |
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
Jonathan Fildes saw his bid for the 2007 ELF Renault Clio Cup title dealt yet another severe blow at Rockingham Motor Speedway today, Sunday, 22nd April, when he was shunted out of proceedings for the second race meeting in succession.
The 31-year-old from Co. Meath started the weekend strongly in pre-event testing on Friday and after setting the third fastest time in yesterday’s Group A qualifying session with a lap of 1m 30.918 seconds (77.16mph), the Total Control Racing star had realistic hopes of challenging for victory at the 1.95-mile Northamptonshire venue.
Thankfully, Jonathan did get further than the opening lap of his
qualification race this time – he was taken out of proceedings by
team-mate Ben Winrow during the first race meeting of the season at
Brands Hatch – but he still encountered troubles when forced wide and
high on the Rockingham banking on lap one.
His start to the race from third on the grid was superb but after
seeing the gap between front-row pairing Ed Pead and Stefan Hodgetts
firmly closed, he had no option other than attempt to pass them around
the outside of the fast, sweeping Turn One.
Unfortunately, the brave move didn’t pay dividends and Jonathan ended
up being hung out to dry on the exit of Deene Hairpin and pushed
unnecessarily wide onto the dirt and grass by Barry Benham.
Relegated to ninth position, Jonathan had a major fight on his hands
which was made all the more difficult by Benham who forcefully slammed
the door shut every time Jonathan attempted a pass but the TCR man did
eventually overtake his rival and finish eighth.
Far from pleased with Benham’s tactics, Jonathan commented: “He’s a
danger to himself, never mind anyone else. He was weaving, slamming
into me and, basically, trying to take me out every time I lined him up
for a pass. What Benham was doing out there in the qualifying race was
plain dangerous.”
With eighth place in his heat converting to 15th position on the grid
for the points-scoring race, Jonathan made a decent getaway but
disaster struck mere yards from the line when Niki Lanik made contact,
pitching Jonathan into the hapless Jamie Cleland.
Working wonders to avoid a bigger collision, the Irishman’s car ended
up stranded in the middle of the track in a highly dangerous position
resulting in the Safety Car being deployed. For Jonathan, it marked
another weekend without championship points and he is, unsurprisingly,
becoming increasingly frustrated with the 2007 series format.
“This isn’t working”, said the Asgard Taverns, Applied Signs &
Display, Atari Expo and Barry Evans Plastics-supported driver, “Genuine
championship challengers are having their season ruined because of
incidents that are totally avoidable and wouldn’t happen if the quick
drivers were at the front of the grid where they should be.
“Cleland was a total innocent in the whole collision, I feel very bad
for him as he was just minding his own business but there was nothing I
could do after Lanik hit me. Two rounds down and we have no points,
it’s not good and it’s all down to these qualifying races. You can
accept car problems and breakdowns for bad results but this just isn’t
on.”
Jonathan added: “This format really puts the cat among the pigeons. My
opinion is that the only winner here is Renault because of all the cars
that have been sold and the number of registrations for the
championship this year. Genuine contenders are being dealt a raw deal
as it stands due to avoidable incidents.”
With the 2007 format of the Clio Cup having attracted a fair amount of
criticism since it was implemented at the start of the season to cope
with the 40-plus strong race entry, it remains to be seen whether
changes will be made ahead of the third round of the season at Thruxton
in a fortnight’s time on 5th/6th May.
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