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Win Number Two For Hotshoe Hodgetts |
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Monday, 07 May 2007 |
Stefan Hodgetts (Redditch) won his second successive race in round three of the ELF Renault Clio Cup at Thruxton on Sunday, 6th May after another incident-filled race in a record breaking season. The Momo UK ace led from start to finish and held off a late charge from Z Speed Racing’s Martin Byford (Colchester) and third-placed Ben Winrow (Earls Barton) of Total Control Racing. The race was red flagged due to a car stopping in a dangerous position with the result being taken from the end of lap 12 of a race extended to 15 laps after a Safety Car period.
JHR Developments’ Robert Lawson (Richmond, N Yorks) started from pole position for the first time in his short car racing career but his lead was short-lived as Hodgetts went through at Segrave. However, a first lap incident involving several drivers in the lower half of the order saw seven cars fail to complete the first lap and force a Safety Car period.
When racing resumed on lap six, Full Speed Racing’s Mark Speller
(Hertford) got the better of both Byford and Kangaroo International/SMC
Renault/JHR’s 2000 Clio Cup champion Jim Edwards Jnr (Maidenhead) as
the Safety Car pulled in. This allowed the top three of Hodgetts,
Lawson and Winrow to pull away but Byford and Speller soon led the
chasing pack back into contention.
Byford in particular appeared to have the measure of those around him
and after dispatching Speller to take fourth place he soon closed up
behind Lawson and Winrow. As Winrow looked for a way past, Byford went
to the outside on the approach to Club chicane and overtook both cars
with a spectacular manoeuvre, which earned him the RFS Driver of the
Day award.
In midfield, Youth 4 Human Rights with SVE’s Niki Lanik (Ashurst Wood)
made up two places in as many laps by passing PH Motorsport’s Philip
House (Harrogate) and Glenn Eagling Motorsport’s Dan Eagling (Norwich)
to lie 12th. Meanwhile, Benham was mounting his recovery from 30th
place and went on to finish 23rd.
As the race passed half distance, Byford was reducing Hodgetts’ lead by
several tenths of a second per lap and was just 0.218s behind at the
start of lap 12. At the same time, at the rear of the field, the group
containing APO Motorsport’s Alex Osborne (Northampton), Team Pyro’s Mel
Healey (Cheam), Collison Racing’s Steve Collison (Hailsham) and Amery
Motorsport’s David Shepherd (Sandbach) were covered by less than
six-tenths of a second in the race for 25th place.
A mistake by Speller, running wide through Church corner, dropped him
to seventh on lap nine but he recovered to pass Team Eurotech-John
Guest Speedfit’s Andrew Jordan (Sutton Coldfield). He then overtook
Lawson and Edwards Jnr on the same lap to climb to fourth behind
Winrow. The pair then had a see-saw battle on the closing laps with
fourth position changing hands twice in the space of three corners at
the end of lap 13.
Unfortunately for Byford, who was looking like he may challenge
Hodgetts for the lead, a misjudged overtaking attempt by Shepherd saw
him hit the barrier at the start of the start/finish straight. With the
car on the racing line, organisers had little choice but to stop the
race, with the results being declared at the end of lap 12. This gave
Hodgetts the win ahead of Byford, with Winrow in third despite being
behind Speller when the race was stopped.
Commenting on his victory, Hodgetts said: “Martin was faster than me
down the straight but I was quicker through the corners so that made
for a great race. I was looking at his pit-board as well as mine so I
knew he was going quickly and was able to push on a bit myself. Both of
us had the car on the ragged edge and it feels great to have won again.”
Second-placed Byford, who now leads the championship, said: “I’m very
happy with the move where I passed Robert and Ben! I had the wheels
locked at one point but was just about able to stop the car and get
into the corner first. I’ve only got myself to blame for a bad restart
that dropped me down but the set-up of the car is about right now.”
Third-placed Winrow said: “It got a bit close between Mark and myself
at the end, but as it turned out I ended up third which I think is
right. I’m quite happy after starting fifth and drove well throughout
the race. I’ve got to keep trying to finish near the top and see where
that leaves me in the championship.”
The ELF Renault Clio Cup now takes a four-week break before the next
race meeting at North Yorkshire’s Croft circuit on 2nd/3rd June.
Drivers’ Championship standings after Round 3 - provisional
1 Martin Byford GBR Z Speed Racing 72 pts
2 Stefan Hodgetts GBR Momo UK 66 pts
3 Robert Lawson GBR JHR Developments 65 pts
4 Ben Winrow GBR Total Control Racing 60 pts
5 Ed Pead GBR Mardi Gras Motorsport 59 pts
6 Mark Speller GBR Full Speed Racing 56 pts
7 Chris Dymond GBR Robertshaw Racing 48 pts
8 Andrew Jordan GBR Team Eurotech-John Guest Speedfit 46 pts
9 Michael Doyle GBR In Tune with Robertshaw Racing 36 pts
10 Árón Smith IRL Mardi Gras Motorsport 36 pts
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