SV Racing’s Ant Whorton-Eales stormed to victory in the opening race of the 2015 Renault UK Clio Cup on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit (4-5 April).
After bettering the Rockingham Motor Speedway lap record by over a second at the championship’s official Media Day last week (26 March), Whorton-Eales was the first driver from the SVR stable to stand atop the podium in 2015 after pulling off a feisty last-ditch passing move on Brands Hatch’s 1.22mile Indy configuration.
The Lichfield driver made an immediate impact on the 30-minute qualifying session (Saturday 4 April), overcoming greasy conditions to head the timesheets, as debutant Jack Mitchell followed suit to go second quickest.
Pole position changed hands no less than seven times, but a brave decision to switch Whorton-Eales and Mitchell to slick rubber following a brief stoppage wouldn’t pay dividends, as the SVR teammates went third and ninth fastest respectively, with the wet-shod Ben Seyfried an impressive fourth.
Whorton-Eales – a graduate of the ‘Danny Buxton School of Race Starts’ – shot off the grid for the first UK Clio Cup race of the weekend on Saturday (4 April) and pulled off two stunning overtakes on Ash Hand and Ashley Sutton to hold the initiative as the race was red-flagged following a serious incident involving multiple cars.
Round 1 would not be restarted due to time constraints and will instead be held later in the season, but Whorton-Eales hoped to repeat his previous start as he lined-up sixth for the second UK Clio Cup encounter of the weekend on Sunday (5 April), with teammates Seyfried and Mitchell locking out the fourth row in seventh and eighth respectively.
It was a case of de ja vu for Whorton-Eales, as he once again bolted off the line and hung on around the outside of Paddock Hill Bend to climb four places, although race leader Sutton was wise to the SVR man’s techniques and kept the door firmly shut as the pair repeatedly swapped paint during a frenetic 19-lap tussle.
Having spent time sizing up his rival, Whorton-Eales performed a do-or-die move up the inside of Sutton to snatch the lead in the final throes of the race and claim 32 points for the victory, while Seyfried and Mitchell concluded a tough UK Clio Cup baptism in eighth and 15th respectively.
“It has been pretty good,” said Whorton-Eales. “We didn’t make the most of the simulated runs on Friday, but from the data we had we knew we would be pretty fast. In qualifying, which was wet, we were P1 on the wet tyres before making the call to switch to slicks. At the time I thought was the right decision, as it was drying really quickly. It didn’t dry as much as we had hoped, but it didn’t matter in the end as we got into the lead in both races.
“Yesterday’s start was brilliant and I was into the lead and today was pretty much exactly the same; straight into second place at Paddock Hill Bend and then nipped past at the final corner. So, I can’t moan about where we qualified if we won the race.”
The rain that fell on Friday (3 April) and Saturday’s overcast skies made for a greasy start to proceedings for the Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup runners and riders.
Jack Clarke, Mitchell Hale and Stephen Young opened their 2015 accounts by experimenting with various racing lines in search of grip during qualifying, and Clarke jumped as high as ninth with a best time of 56.160s, with Young and Hale 11th and 12th respectively.
The trio lowered their visors for the season-opening race on Saturday afternoon and, when the lights went out, Clarke quickly climbed to eighth at the expense of Tom Wrigley, as Hale and Young each dropped a position.
The order chopped and changed and Hale started making progress to lead the SVR charge in ninth, as Young sealed a 12th-place finish and Clarke, who fell down the field, reclaimed 13th position with an late opportunistic move on Fraser Robertson.
In contrast to the previous day, Sunday’s opening race was held under blue skies and on a dry track. Clarke perfected his getaway to gain two positions during the opening tour of the 1.22mile Brands Hatch Indy circuit, and the Effingham, Surrey-based driver continued his ascent up the leaderboard to receive the chequered flag in seventh.
Hale put the pressure on his rivals and finished on the outskirts of the top ten, but mechanical issues hampered Young’s race and the South Africa-domiciled driver from the North East of England returned to the pits on lap four, before re-emerging some nine laps down.
In the weekend’s third and final GT4 Supercup encounter, all three drivers continued to explore the limits. Hale rounded-out his maiden competitive outing in a Ginetta G55 in eighth, Young quickly made progress up to 11th and Clarke set several provisional fastest laps to break into the top ten, before a spin at McLaren saw him tumble down to 16th.
SVR Director, Danny Buxton, said: “This weekend has been frantic. Ginetta delivered the cars from the factory to Brands Hatch on Thursday, so I think the team did a fantastic job in turning the cars around to make them as reliable as they could be, and the drivers, to be fair, with the short amount of time on the circuit and in the cars, did a wonderful job. Mitchell (Hale) hasn’t driven in four years and was lightning quick this weekend. One position off being on the reversed grid pole was a shame but, in terms of pace, it is really encouraging and, with a few more test days he will be a frontrunner. Stephen (Young) was constantly a threat to the top ten and his main focus was making sure he got the car to the finish. Jack (Clarke) at one point had the fastest lap of the race and then equalled it to the tenth of a second. His race pace is fantastic.
“As for the Clios, Ant (Whorton-Eales) had his victory upheld, which is great. He has been running really well all weekend, and to go from sixth to second in the race was amazing. He needs to get a bit better with his defending, as Ashley Sutton was good at that and will be a constant threat to Ant this season. Jack (Mitchell) had a bit of a disappointing race, but I’m sure he will bounce back in the next race. As for Ben (Seyfried), he was the star of the show. A fourth in qualifying with his experience is just phenomenal and he has to take huge credit for and he will certainly go a long way.”
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