ROUND 3 - ELF Renault Clio Cup / Thruxton, Hampshire, May 5th/6th 2007

Double Trouble at Thruxton for Shepherd Duo

The awesome Thruxton circuit in Hampshire, dealt a double blow to father and son racing duo Jonathan and David Shepherd. The fastest circuit on the British Touring Car (BTCC) calendar saw both drivers fail to make the chequered flag on the Sunday 6th May final.

Racing in the highly competitive and over subscribed ELF Renault Clio Cup championship, which supports the BTCC series, means that all 44 drivers entered have to qualify not only for grid position, but also to be eligible for the 38 grid slots for Sundays points scoring race.

Both drivers were in the first of the two qualifying sessions on Saturday, Jonathan qualified 16th however sibling rival David lost control through ‘Church’ the fastest corner at the track, spinning at over 120mph and eventually coming to rest against the tyre wall and damaging the front bodywork and suspension, causing him to retire before he could post a decent lap time.

So with both ‘Team Gladman’ drivers in the first of the two qualifying races late on Saturday afternoon and David sat at the back of the grid, the pressure was on for David to catch his father and move into the top 19 finishers to ensure his place in Sunday’s final.

An eventful race saw Jonathan getting away at the lights well and gaining a few places on the first lap, while David stayed last waiting to seize any advantage that may fall his way as 22 Clio’s battled in the early laps.

Unfortunately for Jonathan, he was the one to gift David one of the 4 places he made-up by the end of the race, as Jonathan suffered a holed radiator forcing him into a high speed spin at ‘Seagrave’ corner, as radiator fluid sprayed onto his front tyres, resulting in a puncture as he collided into a kerb before limping back to the pits.

With only David through to Sunday’s points scoring race, the ‘Amery Motorsport’ team still needed to repair Jonathan’s car as he was first reserve, should any misfortune occur to another driver prior to the start of the race.

The red lights went out and the race started, David lost a few places at the start, but stayed out of trouble as several cars collided on lap one, bringing out the safety car, but without a red-flagged restart, Jonathan was not going to be racing. The safety car pulled-in after a few laps and David then set-about gaining a few places and was battling hard with the group he was tailing. With only a few laps left and having moved up from 36th on the grid to 27th position in the race, David was nudged into the barriers coming out of the ‘Esses’ as he made a brave move on the car of Osborne in front.

Thankfully the accident happened at one of the slowest sections of the track and David climbed out of the car unhurt. However his stricken Clio was now in a very dangerous place, right on the racing-line and so the Marshall’s quickly red-flagged the race.

Commented David afterwards; “I was quick every lap out of the ‘Esses’ and was easily passing Osborne, when I got nudged into the barriers. These things happen in racing, but it seems that Thruxton doesn’t like the Shepherds, as my Dad failed to make the final today and had a big accident here two years ago”.