Jack Young topped the timesheets in official Renault UK Clio Cup testing at Snetterton ahead of the championship’s latest two rounds at the Norfolk circuit this weekend (Sat 3/Sun 4 August).
MRM driver Young (Belfast) was fastest in both free practice sessions held today – his best time in the first of two minutes, 06.492 seconds standing as his best overall around the 2.97-mile circuit, the longest on the calendar.
However he was only fractionally ahead of Team HARD’s Max Coates (Scorton) – the driver he is chasing in the title race. Coates, like every other driver, set his best lap of the day in the second session to wind up a mere 0.145s adrift of Young in second.
Coates goes into this weekend’s two races – rounds nine and ten of the 18-round season – six points ahead of Young at the top of the standings. A maximum of 56 points is up for grabs in Snetterton’s races, however…
Young commented: “P1 in both free practice sessions is a great way to start our weekend but we’ll have to up our game again tomorrow during qualifying – Max is right there, it seems, and I don’t think we’ve seen the best yet from some of the others.”
Coates said: “We were half a second shy in FP1 but have got that down to just over a tenth of a second by the end of the day so I’m in a good frame of mind going into tomorrow – we usually find more for qualifying and I’m confident our race pace will be strong, too.”Young’s MRM team-mates Brett Lidsey (Northfleet) and Nathan Edwards (Tunbridge Wells) were third and fourth fastest, separated by just 0.016s.
Team HARD’s Jamie Bond (West Malling) and Westbourne Motorsport’s Ben Colburn (Worthing) were close behind in fifth and sixth positions. Ethan Hammerton (Northallerton) was also on their pace, only 0.065s further behind in sevent
