MAC Tools factory driver, Ollie Pidgley, reached a significant milestone in Round 2 of the 2016 Renault UK Clio Cup, as the Salisbury racer achieved his first top ten finish in the super-competitive one-make saloon car championship at Donington Park in the East Midlands (16-17 April).
The weekend began with free practice on Thursday (14 April) and the initial plan was to purely focus on refining driving style in a bid to maximise mid-corner speed.
However, Pidgley and his Ciceley Motorsport team also found lap time by going in pursuit of an improved setup and took enough of a step to qualify inside the top ten for the first time, although the Salisbury resident felt that more speed was available to him, since he had to respond to yellow flags and back off on what would have been his fastest flying lap of the session.
Pidgley was also confident about his race pace, having been the second and fourth fastest driver in Rounds 1 and 2 respectively a fortnight ago at Brands Hatch, and he could foresee plenty of opportunities to overtake on Donington Park’s fast, flowing confines.
The UK Clio Cup was back to its thrill-a-minute best in the East Midlands, as the first of two encounters on Sunday featured all the drama we have come to expect of Britain’s premier one-make saloon car championship.
Collisions and overturned cars characterised the truncated six-lap race and Pidgley pushed back from 14th to tenth after losing ground in the opening-lap melee, despite setting his mind to staying out of harm’s way.
Cold rear tyres impacted his confidence and prompted him to make further setup changes prior to the final outing on Sunday afternoon and, while the adjustments were positive, the young charger still felt there was more work to be done.
Sadly, Pidgley’s day ended with a retirement when side-on contact with a rival damaged his rear suspension, and he reflected on his weekend by saying: “While the retirement is fresh in my mind, I’m really happy to have achieved my first top ten finish at Donington Park. We said that if we were getting top ten finishes at the end of the year, we’d be happy, so have to be pleased about being there in Round 2 of the season.
“There’s still more to come, but it’s going to come from the setup – it’s not going to be perfect every time. I’m disappointed that race two ended with a retirement, but we now move on to Thruxton, which is really close to where I live in Salisbury. I will have a lot of support from family and friends and it’s a circuit I enjoy, although it can be a bit edgy at times due to the incredibly high speeds. It’s one where setup and bravery come together.”
The third round of the 2016 Renault UK Clio Cup will be held on 7-8 May at the ultra-high speed Thruxton circuit in Hampshire.