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Ben Colburn and Nicky Taylor secured a race victory apiece at the latest Clio Cup Great Britain Championship meeting at Snetterton, on Sunday August 11.
The technically-challenging 300 circuit configuration welcomed two different generations of the iconic Renault hatchback for Rounds 5 & 6 of the 2024 season.
Qualifying:
An incredibly close qualifying session was eventually topped by Westbourne Motorsport’s Ben Colburn, who secured pole position for the day’s opening race by just 0.039s over teammate Daire Flock.
Graves Motorsport’s Nicky Taylor had topped the classification for the majority of the session, before falling to third on the grid after the afore-mentioned Westbourne Motorsport drivers emphatic final laps.
After narrowly missing out on pole position for the day’s opening race, Flock did secure the front of the grid for Round 6 with a lap time of 2m12.109s. Taylor and Colburn qualified second and third respectively for the day’s second race, with Ben Jenkins (LDR Performance Tuning) lining up for both of the day’s races fourth on the grid.
Ray Honeybone was the fastest Guest class qualifier, heading fellow GEN4 drivers Kevin Stirling and Richard Clarke into both races.
Race One:
Polesitter Colburn launched from the grid well to maintain his lead through the opening exchanges, while Taylor managed to leapfrog Flock into turn one for second place. A close battle between the leading trio ensued, with Jenkins hot on the tail in fourth.
With Taylor and Flock entrenched in a duel for second place, championship leader Colburn utilised the situation to create a small gap upfront. As the race progressed, Colburn expertly managed this slight buffer to record an excellent lights-to-flag victory for the #55 driver and his third Clio Cup GB race win.
The race-long battle for second place was decided on lap seven. Flock overtook Taylor heading around the opening few corners, before fending off the resulting charge to secure the second step of the podium. Taylor would ultimately finish just 0.286s behind the Westbourne Motorsport driver in third, with Jenkins rounding out the top four Clio V II drivers.
Honeybone put in a faultless display to beat his Guest class rivals, as Clarke improved from starting third-in-class to finish second.
Race Two:
Flock and Taylor immediately picked up where they left off in the second race of the day. Taylor seized the lead from Flock to end the opening lap in front, with only 1.248s separating the top four after their first circulation of the Snetterton 300 circuit.
While on the offensive, Flock made a slight mistake that allowed teammate Colburn through into second. The previous race winner instantly put the pressure on Taylor in front, all the while having to be mindful of Flock behind who was clearly keen to retake his position.
From that point onwards, there was less than one second separating the top three over the start/finish line each lap, with Jenkins still in the podium hunt himself in fourth.
Ultimately, Taylor put to use all of his home circuit expertise to see off Colburn and Flock challenges to take his second race win of the 2024 season. Despite being unable to get the overtake on Taylor, Colburn did manage to fend off Flock’s advances to finish second, with a mere 0.647s covering the top three as they took the checkered flag!
Jenkins continued the solid start to his inaugural Clio Cup GB campaign finishing in fourth, while Honeybone completed a tremendous day of racing with his second Guest class victory of the day, with a lights-to-flag victory of his own.
Clio Cup GB returns to action next month on the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit.