OULTON PARK REPORT
As the Renault Clio Cup UK edges towards it’s halfway stage, Rory Collingbourne and the rest of the Team Cooksport squad travelled north to Cheshire for the fourth meeting of the season at the picturesque Oulton Park circuit. The 2.22 mile circuit basked in the sunshine all weekend and yet again Collingbourne shone on circuit, with Wales’ newest motorsport prospect picking up another decent haul of points to keep his quest for Graduate Cup success on track.
Qualifying again demonstrated the level of competition in this years championship as Rory qualified a disappointing 11th at the rear end of a Team Cooksport quartet, yet set a fastest lap time of 1:35.763, just 1.5 seconds off pole position. His second fastest lap time ensured he would start from the marginally better position of 10th for the second race on Sunday, with other drivers around him having their lap times disallowed left, right and centre for exceeding track limits. If qualifying was a slight disappointment for Rory, however, he more than made up for it in the first race.
From 11th, Rory was able to overtake Smith and former Fiesta competitor Jackson on the opening lap to make his way up to 9th position, once again moving into the top ten. After three laps working towards the cars in front, Collingbourne was given a helping hand as Mitchell hit problems in 6th position and duly fell behind, handing Rory 8th position on a plate. The race now revolved around an intensely-fought battle for 6th position, which would have been Rory’s highest finish of the season. With team-mates Charlie Laddell and Jon Maybin running in front, Rory set about closing the deficit and chasing down another consistent points finish. However, his fellow Team Cooksport drivers were able to hang on under pressure to claim 6th and 7th, whilst Rory crossed the line in 8th, matching his best finish this season. At the checkered flag there was less than half a second seperating all three 1.6 litre Renault Clio cars, showing there was little to chose between all three competitors. Rory now looked towards a slightly higher starting position on Sunday to try and finally break into the top six.
From the start, Rory was able to hold position as the cars behind went three abreast heading into the first corner at Old Hall, before accelerating quickly through the corner and taking two positions as several cars took to the grass on the outside. Yet again it was Smith who fell victim to Collingbourne, whilst team-mate Charlie Laddell also fell behind the Welsh ace as the first lap concluded with Rory sitting comfortably in 9th. Onto the third lap and Rory was filling the mirrors of Jon Maybin in front, getting a good run out of Cascades to challenge his team-mate for 8th heading into the Island hairpin. Taking the outside line into the corner, Rory was forced wide by Mitchell, taking onto the grass briefly and losing out to Laddell behind. But there was more misfortune to come as a puncture curtailed Rory’s chances of another top ten finish and he was forced to make a trip to the pits, rejoining at the very back of the field. Undettered by this, however, he immediately set about reclaiming lost ground to those in front. Problems for championship leader Ashley Sutton then elevated Rory into 15th, but the time lost in the pits proved too much to pull back. Despite his issues the fastest sector times told you everything you needed to know about Collingbourne’s pace, with faster times in sector one than the cars in front and faster times in the last two sectors than championship contenders such as Jordan Stilp and Ashley Sutton. Rory finished the race in 15th, one lap down on the leaders as a result of the enforced pit stop.
A weekend of contrasting fortunes for Rory meant that he left the Cheshire circuit still sitting in 8th position, but Brett Smith behind has closed to within three points as a result of that disastorous second race result. In the Graduate Cup, Rory holds onto his fourth position but will have ground to make back up when the series reconvenes at Croft circuit in Yorkshire in three weeks time for the next two installments in what is proving to be one of the most closely-contested Renault Clio Cup UK seasons on record. As always, you can follow Rory’s progress trackside or live on ITV4 on the Sunday.
