|
North Devon saloon car racer Jonathan Ridley-Holloway concluded by far his
most consistent and successful race weekend of the 2008 ELF Renault Clio Cup at
Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire yesterday, Sunday, 1st June, to climb to within
just three points of the championship top 15.
The 23-year-old, who lives in Barnstaple, is improving with every outing in
his Total Control Racing prepared Clio Cup race car and at Croft yesterday he
took a superb top seven finish during the 10th round of the campaign – just
missing out on sixth place by a mere three 10ths of a second at the chequered
flag.
Travelling the 350 miles from his home in the South West to Croft on Friday
for pre-event testing, Jonathan instantly performed well and posted the seventh
fastest time in practice, pace he carried through to qualifying on
Saturday.
Lining up seventh on the grid for yesterday’s 10th round of the season,
Jonathan didn’t make the best start but soon made his way into the top eight and
then began to catch Aron Smith and Alex Osborne ahead.
With the latter running wide at the hairpin at the end of lap eight, Smith
nipped through to sixth place and Jonathan managed to snatch seventh. The Bond
Oxborough Phillips, A4 Apparel and PicoPC.co.uk backed racer pressured Smith all
the way to the finish and in the process pulled some 2.4 seconds clear of
Osborne over the last four laps.
“I’m really happy with the performance I showed on Sunday, pace wise it
wasn’t bad at all and especially considering we struggled with set-up a bit in
qualifying”, commented Jonathan, “Thanks to my consistent second fastest lap
though it put us on row four and that gave me the chance to run with the other
front guys which was a lot of fun.
“I didn’t get a great start to the race, I dropped to eighth at the first
corner and then my car was smacked on entry to Hawthorn which almost had me
facing the wrong way round. I managed to catch the car though, got it all
pointing in the right direction and went on to have a good race.”
During Saturday’s ninth round, Jonathan took the chequered flag in 14th
position but this later became a top 12 finish when Chris Law was handed a time
penalty and Gavin Pyper was excluded from the results.
Ridley-Holloway Promotes ‘Devon Pride’
This
weekend’s races at Croft saw the roof of Jonathan’s Clio Cup race car adorned
with the Flag of Devon – St Petroc’s Cross – as the young saloon car star bids
to promote his Devonian roots through his racing.
Taking into account his season’s best result during round 10 on Sunday, the
presence of the flag looks to have already had a major bearing on his level of
success and Jonathan is now aiming to attract increased support for his racing
career from local businesses.
“This weekend was the first this year where I’ve run with the Flag of
Devon on the roof of my car and it coincided with my best ever result in Clios –
hopefully that kind of luck will continue”, said Jonathan, “We’re making good
progress so hopefully we’ll be able to attract some additional local sponsors to
help us make even bigger strides in 2009.”
Jonathan will be back behind the wheel of his race car in double-quick time
this week in preparation for the weekend’s 11th and 12th rounds of the 2008
season which will take place at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in
Northamptonshire.
After official testing on Friday, 6th June, the TCR driver will take part
in qualifying on Saturday, 7th June, at approximately 17.45. Both races are then
scheduled for Sunday, 8th June, with round 11 expected to commence at 09.50 and
round 12 timetabled to get underway at around 15.45.
Away from its regular slot on the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship
package, the Clio Cup will compete at Silverstone next weekend as support to the
pan-European World Series by Renault category and also the Eurocup Megane
Trophy.
Some 150,000 spectators are expected to attend the hugely popular event,
attendance figures which place the British round of the World Series by Renault
second only to the Formula One British Grand Prix. At the corresponding event in
2007, which was held at Donington Park, around 135,000 enthusiasts filed through
the gates.
|
