The first race weekend of the VSG Crypto Clio Sport Championship ensued a 488 mile round trip to the idyllic Croft Race Circuit in Darlington. Croft offers an exhilaratingly fast lap, ensuring close racing throughout but proves to be a particularly difficult place to overtake.

Qualifying
Saturday’s Qualifying session demonstrated some great pace from all JG Racing drivers. With our newest team member, Mark Ridout qualifying 2nd in class, after zero testing and minimal time in his JG Racing built Clio 182.

Following closely was returning driver, Josh North in 3rd, with team boss James Gahagan in 4th and another new comer to the team, Mark Witherington, finishing a respectable 6th in class.

Last season’s overall Champion, Pete O’Connor qualified 7th in Class, a promising session with much more to come from him and the car.

Qualifying Results

Race 1
Race one showed just how difficult it can be to pass at Croft, with the top runners making very few overtakes throughout the race. Apart from a coming together between Mark Ridout and competitor Lewis Richardson (which unfortunately lost Mark an odds-on 2nd in class finish) the rest of the field experienced a fairly non-eventful race.

Josh North found his way to the highest JG Racing spot crossing the line 2nd in Class A. Pete O’Connor finished just behind on track and 7th in Class B with James Gahagan 4th in Class followed by recovering Mark Ridout in 5th and Mark Witherington in 6th.

Race 1 Results

Watch Race #1 below thanks to Alpha Live

Race 2
Race Two was unfortunately a display of the lowest lows of Motorsport – a race which ended Josh North’s weekend. Through no fault of either driver, Josh was hit on the entrance of Tower Bend by a competitor who had lost all ability to brake at 120mph. Thankfully, both drivers were OK, albeit sore the next day. But Josh’s Class A Clio 182 was beyond repair for the final day of the weekend.

One positive from the race came in the shape of the result being cut back 2 laps and taken as it stood at lap 6 (due to an abandoned car at the Jim Clark Esses) which meant Josh collected 2nd in Class. Mark Ridout continued the pace he had in race one and finished 3rd in Class. James Gahagan took 5th in class, unfortunately falling victim to the result cut back having made his way to 4th a lap before, and Mark Witherington finished 7th in Class.

Peter O’Connor continued to make good progress in his Class B car. Finishing 6th overall and 5th in Class. He was quicker than the cars ahead of him, but struggled to find a way past the slower drivers.

Race 2 Results

Watch Race #2 below thanks to Alpha Live

Race 3
The race weekend at Croft was one of few times this year that the race weekend was competed across three races.  And it would be fair to say we saved the best until last. A superb driving display from Pete saw him pass various cars to finish 4th in Class and 4th overall, only a few car lengths behind the top three.

In Class A, Mark Ridout took the win, with team Boss, James Gahagan in 2nd, making this the first official class 1-2 for JG Racing ever! And Mark Witherington finished 5th in Class after a great battle with competitor Chris Page, and showed fantastic pace as the race progressed.

The teams’ next race weekend will see them make the trip to the picturesque Oulton Park at the end of May.

Race 3 Results

Watch Race #3 below thanks to Alpha Live