Rory Collingbourne recovers from frustrating qualifying to score solid points at Donington
Rory Collingbourne overcame the disappointment of a poor qualifying session to score two consistently strong points finishes last weekend [16th-17th April] at Donington Park in the second meeting of the season for the Renault Clio Cup UK.
The Newport-based driver had several of his best times disallowed during the session by race officials after it was deemed the racing line used by Collingbourne, which he and the team had practiced during the off season on the proviso it was allowed, exceeded track limits, and therefore the Team Cooksport ace was left with his warm-up lap as his only representative time, 0.861 seconds off the pace. As a result, he lined up for the brace of Clio races on Sunday in 19th and 20th positions respectively on a frustrating day for the team.
However, the former MSA Academy athlete responded in fine fashion on Sunday, completing two storming drives through the field to secure a brace of strong points finishes. The opening contest saw Rory dispense with five of his rivals on the first lap, followed by another two a lap later. Alongside this, he also managed to save a moment heading into the notorious Craner Curves, a sequence of sweeping downhill corners that caught several drivers out, with a roll for Dan Zelos bringing proceedings to a halt temporarily. After the restart, Collingbourne made his way up to 11th but an early halt to the race due to a Senna Proctor becoming the second driver to roll over, ensured Rory wouldn’t have the opportunity to push higher.
The second race was arguably one of Rory’s best ever showings in the UK’s strongest single-make series, with the Newport Auctions, Add Energy and Europa Group backed driver storming through the field from a lowly 20th on the grid to a fantastic 9th position at the chequered flag. Collingbourne’s rise through the field was meteoric, as he relieved seven cars in front of position on the opening tour of the 1.9 mile National circuit alone. He continued his steady progress and eventually finished 10th on the road, but an exclusion for Ant Whorton-Eales gave Collingbourne yet another position, some would argue a justified gift given the performance of the 18 year-old across the weekend.
The weekends results mean Rory now sits 12th in the Drivers standings with a two point margin to make up to Luke Kidsley in front, whilst Team Cooksport sit second in the Entrants Trophy, thirty-five points behind WDE Motorsport.
The championship heads next to the notoriously challenging Thruxton circuit in Hampshire, where Collingbourne topped the timesheets in a wet weather test prior to the second meeting at Donington Park and demonstrated both consistency and pace in the drier conditions with third overall. With a solid testing programme during the winter also underneath his belt, expectations are high heading into the meeting, and as always the action is live on ITV4 and in HD.
“Qualifying was my fault” admitted Collingbourne “during testing we used a racing line which was quick, but the officials felt it was excluding track limits. As a result of that, our fastest laps were removed which meant only our warm-up laps counted towards our grid slot.”
“I got a good start in the first race and managed to make up a couple of positions into the first corner. Then heading down the Craner Curves into the Old Hairpin I got pushed wide on the grass. It was similar to the spin I had at Brands Hatch, but this time I managed to catch the car, take it down to first gear and continue. I’m not quite sure how we got away with it, especially with the rear wheels on the grass!”
“From thereon it was a normal race, I was able to pull some overtakes and move forward, but obviously in this championship you also need to be able to defend. Overall, I was quite happy with the progress.”
“I got a monster of a start in the second race and I think we passed six people alone before we’d even reached turn one! Then I had to spend the next five laps defending, it all got pretty hectic out there, I could feel how much the guys behind wanted to get past. There was a lot of pushing and shoving but I managed to back them up, and then they started to battle amongst themselves, which allowed me to pull away and establish a gap.”
“Then I had a really good, clean and fair race with Luke Kidsley, there was no contact between us or anything like that. I did manage to get past him twice, but unfortunately one was in a yellow flag zone so I backed off and let him have the position back. Overall, I’m
