ROUNDS 7 & 8 – ELF Renault Clio Cup / Snetterton, Norfolk, July 28/29 2007

Red Flags and Safety Cars at Snetterton

Round seven of the ELF Renault Clio Cup visited the fast, furious Snetterton circuit in Norfolk at the end of July and the ‘Team Gladman’ drivers, father and son duo ‘Jonathan and David Shepherd’ were relishing the chance to show their metal, following a good test day the previous week.

Now well into the second half of the season, the entries of Clio Cup cars had finally dropped to 37, which meant that all drivers would race on the Sunday and the event could now be a double header, meaning two points scoring races instead of the usual one.

Buoyed by his testing pace where he was consistently running in the top ten, David (alias Dreaded Dave) failed again to make the most of qualifying and finished only 25th quickest for the first race and lower still down the grid in 31st place for race two, Jonathan too struggled and like his son and rival David, found it difficult to find a gap in the traffic and get a clear lap, resulting in 33rd and 32nd qualifying positions.

Race one (Round 7) saw both drivers make good starts, Jonathan getting up to 25th by the end of the first lap, Further up the field David was battling hard and gaining places until the safety car was deployed to replace the tyres at the chicane, forcing the whole field to group-up again.

Following the restart both drivers battled hard, having already made significant progress through the field, however further chances to gain places were halted by the red flag being deployed four laps before the end, resulting in a very impressive points finish for David in 13th place and in 21st place Jonathan just missed out on the points, but was pleased along with David at the number of positions they had both gained during the race.

A delighted Dave said, “I was well chuffed to finish near the top ten considering how badly I’d qualified. I know that I can run near the front, I just need to get my act together during qualifying’.

Sundays race two (Round 8) saw an all family 16th row on the grid, as for the first time this season David and Jonathan were alongside each other at the start. This time a major collision of cars on the first lap, which included Jonathan’s number 16 car, bought out the red flags and as the survivors re-formed on the grid, Jonathan limped back to the pits to have his team check how bad the damage was.

With a damaged front quarter and bent steering Jonathan rejoined his grid slot and both drivers took the restart. With a now depleted grid David started working his way through the field, eventually getting tapped into a slide and losing places, only to regain them and move into 16th place by the last lap. Jonathan was forced to retire on lap eleven due to overheating tyres as a result of his damaged steering.

With only the last lap to complete David spun off, a few corners before the chequered flag and limped home in a disgruntled 22nd place. So no points for either ‘Team Gladman’ driver in race two, but a great deal to discuss back in the paddock with friends, family and sponsors Birchall.

You can watch the ELF Renault Clio Cup on ITV1’s Motorsport UK on Sunday evenings, check programme listings for times.

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