Silverstone Race Report
With just four races left to run in the 2015 Renault Clio Cup UK, Rory Collingbourne and the rest of Team Cooksport made the journey to the world-famous Silverstone circuit with their focus on repeating the strong performances of Rockingham a fortnight prior.
Collingbourne, who scored his best finish of the season at the Corby speedway with a fourth position in the opening encounter, would face increased opposition around the National circuit as the grid sized swelled to twenty cars for the meeting, the largest it has been all season.
After getting through the two free practice sessions on Friday without any major issues, qualifying arrived on Saturday and Rory was left frustrated with 15th position on the grid. Even more frustratingly, his best time of 1:05.363 was just +1.077 seconds off of pole position, which was duly awarded to Ant Whorton-Eales.
“Qualifying was really bad; I didn’t manage to do a quick lap at all” commented Rory after the session “And the only lap I did manage was compromised by the traffic. There was also the added problem of people getting a tow off the back of me, so I had to back out of some of my laps before they managed that.”
As a result of several support championships on the TOCA package being decided at Silverstone, both of Rory’s races were televised for this weekend, as opposed to just the one, giving his sponsors, including Newport Auctions, another benefit to their already extensive coverage.
From the start of Race 1, Rory took the outside line into the fast sweeping left hander of Copse corner, but contact with those in his immediate vicinity left Rory in the gravel trap and requiring marshall assistance as the safety car was called for in a dramatic first lap of the encounter.
“I managed to get a really good start, it’s just unfortunate that in the first corner I made contact with a few other drivers, which wasn’t really my fault. That sent me into a spin and I hit the wall.” explained Rory.
After the restart, the comeback was on. After joining the trail of the field under safety car conditions, Rory was placed 18th with three laps of the race distance run and was almost a full ten seconds behind the leaders. Undeterred, three laps later he had already made up two places as a result of passing Sedgewick and the retirement of Luke Kidsley. Field was his next victim on lap eight as Rory slotted into 15th, ensuring he had already limited the damage to his starting position. He then set about closing the gap to Rory Green in front, and on lap eleven Rory managed to take an entire half-second out of the deficit, a remarkable achievement considering the sub one-minute lap time on the Silverstone national circuit. The gap reduced gradually until it sat at two tenths of a second with just under half the race to run, and Rory finally got his man with five tours of the circuit left to complete. Coupled with a spin at Brooklands for Grundy and a trip to the pit lane for Holland, this left Rory to take the chequered flag in a credible 12th position, just over a second behind newly-crowned Masters champion Howard in front. Given twenty minutes prior he had been sat facing an early exit from the race, the comeback again underlined the talent of Wales’ latest prospect in motorsport.
“The marshals wanted me to get out of the car and see if I was okay, but as the car was fine I wanted to drive it back to the pits. And as I went quite slowly as I was exiting, I actually compromised my restart as I lost three or four seconds to the pack. So not only did I have to re-pass everyone, I had to catch back up to them as well. By the time I gotten to the front of that queue the rest of the field were gone.” recalled Collingbourne when asked after the race.
If race one was anything to go by, the second race five hours later in bright conditions was set to be an absoloute blockbuster, and Rory hadn’t finished with his impressive feats just yet. Almost instantly after the lights went out, the car in front stalled and Collingbourne swerved impressively to the outside line at barely a seconds notice to ensure his start remained as uncompromised as possible. Moving forward, he continued his quick start to cross the timing line 10th at the end of the first lap, a gain of six places from his grid slot. This was then followed two laps later as he claimed 9th. The margin to 8th position began to gradually reduce, going from 2.7 seconds to 1.9 in a little over two laps. However, from here the race began to get difficult. Mark Howard made a sweeping move on the outside line at Copse to demote Rory back to 10th. Rory made an instant fightback and reclaimed his position, but into Luffield later that lap the 18-year old went wide into the right-hander, and by the end of the fifteenth lap he found himself in an undeserving 14th. He would later re-claim his position once more as he replicated Howard’s trick of passing at Copse, relegating the Masters champion down the order. The last lap characterised everything the Clio Cup offers, as Rory was one of four cars heading into the final few corners four abreast. In a closely fought contest, Collingbourne emerged to take the chequered flag in a frustrating 15th, but once again had finished in an improved position from his grid slot.
“It was quite a good race” mused Rory afterwards “I had a good initial start but my team-mate Alex Sedgewick, who’s new to the championship, stalled right on the line, so I had to back out and move out of the way, which lost most of the speed and power I had gained from the start.”
“The first lap was quite an easy one, though I did have to avoid a spin on the second corner, which unfortunately I think my team-mate George Jackson got caught up in. But I took the inside line and gained some more places and from there it was just a case of battling it out with everyone.”
Despite the result, Rory was also full of praise for his fellow competitors and paid tribute to the standard and quality of the racing they shared, which thrust the quartet firmly into the spotlight on the ITV coverage.
“We had great television footage and it was really good, hard racing from all of us as we tried to break into the top ten.”
As the championship heads into the final meeting of the season at the legendary Brands Hatch circuit, Rory will race for the first time in his career on the Grand Prix configuration. Undettered by the challenge, the Newport-based racer remains firmly focused on cementing his Graduate Cup standing and, looking at the wider picture, on bringing the best possible result home to reward the efforts of Team Cooksport.
“I’ve never been on the GP circuit, but I like the Indy circuit! At the start of the year the meeting there didn’t quite go to plan, although that was partly due to the whole experience being new to me. But it should be a good, eventful weekend and we’ll be going for 5th in the championship, which for my first year in Clios would be a good result.”
Rory heads into the finale placed 7th in the overall Drivers Championship, and sits 3rd in the Graduate Cup awarded to the best rookie driver. With a 10 point deficit to Charlie Ladell in 2nd, the objective for the weekend will be clear for Rory. Team Cooksport remain in 3rd position in the Entrants Trophy with a 38-point deficit to WDE Motorsport in front.
Each and every round of the 2015 Renault Clio Cup UK has presented Rory with new lessons – often the hard way – but so far the MSA Academy student has risen to each and every one. He now heads to one of the famous circuits in the world as he looks to end his season on a high and build a strong foundation to work from in 2016. As always, raceday coverage will be live on ITV4 and in HD on Sunday 11th October. Many thanks for your continued support.
