Donington Park hosted rounds three and four of the Renault UK Clio Cup in which North-Yorkshireman Max Coates promoted himself to the lead of the championship.
Following two successful test sessions he was confident of a strong qualifying performance. Despite heading the field at mid-session distance the drying track enabled a number of drivers to switch to slick (dry) racing tires and beat the BRDC Rising Star’s time which meant he would start Sunday’s two races from 11th and 10th on the grid respectively.
It was always going to be a tall order to climb back into podium contention from rows 5 and 6 of the grid, but nonetheless Max in the Harron Homes car made his way through the highly talented field of drivers to take a pair of 6th place finishes. In race one Coates backed by Primex Plastics and PLASgran Recycling, dropped positions at the start but came around on the first lap two places up in 9th after altercations for others. He climbed to 8th and dropped to 9th again before a late charge netted him 6th three laps from the end. Similarly Coates ran wide at turn one in race two and dropped to 12th at the end of lap one. He quickly made his way to 6th by lap 6 but ran out of time to catch those in front in the Clements Limited car.
The first race was shown as a highlight on ITV4’s broadcast of the British Touring Car Championship event and the second was live on the network.
Coates racing through the field provided entertainment to those watching trackside, including new sponsors Polydist UK, and on ITV4. The Bennett Renault driver earnt the championship lead as the ultra-competitive one make series travels to Thruxton in Hampshire for the next rounds on the 19th and 20th May.
Afterwards Coates said, “Two sixth place finishes is a solid haul of points considering our qualifying position and to lead the championship at an early stage is encouraging. We have the pace to fight for wins so hopefully we get chance to show that at Thruxton in a couple of weeks.”
