The 750mc ClioSport Championship visited the iconic track of Silverstone (National) on the 30th April, which saw a field of 30 cars competing. Although a tricky start ensued, the team ended the weekend, with a good points haul and a lap record for Chris Keir.

Following his first win at Croft a few weeks back, Keir qualified further down the order than expected, but it was a very tight grid which saw the top ten Clio 182’s split between less than a second. Qualifying 8th in class, Keir finished race one where he started but it was the second race for Chris that made his weekend. Starting 15th on the overall grid, Chris stormed through the pack in the Powerlite Fitzgerald car to finish 3rd, taking another podium for his collection and achieved the Silverstone ‘Clio 182’ lap record in doing so.

The race weekend didn’t end so strongly for Gareth Tansey in our Podium Transport Management backed car. After showing great qualifying pace, he found himself in a fantastic midfield battle throughout race 1. Finishing 13th in Class, Gareth raced superbly against a strong pack split between less than 0.5 seconds in pace. Unfortunately this is where Gareth’s weekend ended, after a clutch malfunction ended his second race during the out-lap. It was extremely bad luck for Gareth and the team, but we have taken a positive note from the fact that this was the first ever DNF for a JG Racing built car (that wasn’t caused by driver error) since we established the team.

In amongst the midfield pack with Gareth was our second Powerlite Fitzgerald car, driven by Alex Hawkins. Alex was racing at his second ever track race weekend and qualified only 4 tenths off Kier’s qualifying time. Starting 11th in class Alex raced superbly and finished 13th in race one and 10th in race two, adding another top ten result to his CV, a great effort in such a tight competitive field.

For the first time this season, we also welcomed previous MX and Superbike racer Mike King. With no Friday testing, Mike was on track for the first time of the weekend during qualifying, where he finished 20th. But it didn’t take Mike long to get to grips with the technical National circuit layout and after charging forward he ending race one in 11th just a few seconds off Keir. It was a fantastic race and while Mike continued to show great pace in race two, he was unfortunately turned around (racing incident) and finished last of the classified drivers.

It was a busy weekend for the team, as we also welcomed our resident Hot Hatch Championship driver Trevor Gregory to the team again. We supported Trevor throughout the weekend in his Honda Civic Type R. Trevor had a great weekend, qualifying 6th, Trevor finished race one in 4th only a few seconds off 3rd. Race two was a bit more eventful for Trevor who finished 5th after staring 4th on the grid. A good points haul saw Trevor finish the weekend sitting 4th in the Hot Hatch Championship, and continues to remain close to Kris McCloy in 3rd.

We now look forward to our next race weekend in Wales, at Pembrey Circuit on the 18th and 19th June.