Scuderia Vittoria is anticipating another stellar Renault UK Clio Cup outing when the ultra-competitive single-make championship resumes at Snetterton this weekend (3-4 August).
The tranquillity of the beautiful East Anglian countryside will be shattered when the UK Clio Cup – Britain’s premier one-make saloon car championship – bursts back into life at the Snetterton circuit near Thetford, Norfolk.
The KX Akademy and One Call Insurance-backed Scuderia Vittoria team has used the prolonged six-week mid-season break to regroup, but still carries the momentum following its recent successes at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire.
It will once again field a seven-car attack, with KX Akademy’s Stefan Hodgetts bidding to extend his trophy collection after achieving three race wins and two podium finishes in the last three rounds.
The most recent UK Clio Cup encounter at Croft was something of a watershed for Ant Whorton-Eales, who followed stable mate Hodgetts home to emphatically seal the first KX Akademy with Scuderia Vittoria one-two victory of the season.
Newly impassioned by his maiden podium finish and Graduate Cup victory, Whorton-Eales now has designs on further podium finishes and outright race victories during the remainder of the 2013 season to cement his reputation as a star of the future.
The latest recruit to Scuderia Vittoria’s KX Akademy ranks, Mike Bushell, and rookie team-mate Josh Wakefield, meanwhile, are both looking to replicate the guile and determination they showed at Croft.
Mechanical issues and contact prevented them and their One Call Insurance-backed team-mates Finlay Crocker and Ronnie Klos from converting their raw pace into results. However, all are revitalised after the summer break and head to Snetterton with renewed optimism.
Devon Modell, on the other hand, will be delighted to just be back in the fray after a heavy opening-lap collision with the barriers put him out of action at Croft. The former karting ace – in his first season of car racing – miraculously emerged from the wreckage uninjured but could only spectate from the sidelines having suffered terminal damage to his Clio Cup racer.
Of course, all have one common objective – reducing the deficit to Team Pyro in the Teams’ table. And Scuderia Vittoria Director Danny Buxton, said: “The team is in a good place after a sensational end to the first half of the season at Oulton Park and Croft. The one-two Stefan (Hodgetts) and Ant (Whorton-Eales) produced was just incredible and we’d certainly like to emulate that result at Snetterton.
“With the backing from our amazing sponsors, KX Energy Drink and One Call Insurance, and seven highly talented drivers, there’s no reason why we can’t take our strong run of form to Norfolk. We’ve reached a critical juncture in the season so it’s absolutely essential that we have another solid weekend to close in on the top-spot in both the Teams’ and Drivers’ standings. We have to make an impact now!”
Renault UK Clio Cup qualifying is scheduled to take place at 11.20 on Saturday 3 August, with Round 11 later that same day from 16.40 and Round 12 at 11.20 on Sunday (4 August).
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