by Kingsley Newman
20 year old racer James Colburn, from Worthing, got his 2013 Clio Cup Campaign off to a fantastic start with a brace of podium finishes, including one win at Brands Hatch, Kent last weekend.
Heading into qualifying, Westbourne Motors backed Colburn was looking good after clocking in a time good enough for second place in both the earlier free practise sessions and was hoping to go one better in the 50 minute shootout. An incredibly cold morning meant it was tough to get any sort of heat into the new for 2013 Dunlop tyres, as James explains “It’s been cold all weekend so everyone was struggling to get enough heat into all 4 tyres so it took a lot longer than anticipated to do our runs.”
However the cold weather did not prevent Colburn from continuing his impressive form as he managed to put his #2 Clio on the front row for both races; 2nd and 1st respectively. “I managed to pull it out of the bag when it counted and get my first qualifying session of the season to an almost perfect start.” stated Colburn.
It was from the first race that James picked up his first win of the season on an again extremely cold Sunday Morning. After making a terrific start jumping his team-mate off the line, Colburn’s rear tyres were not quite up to temperature and went slightly wide at the 3rd corner, allowing the car behind to take the inside line into the corner and pushing James back where he qualified in second place, before a safety car period as a result of a midfield collision. Once the safety car had peeled into the Pits, James began to put pressure on the leader by punching in fastest lap times keeping within just half a second of the leader. This time is was the leader’s turn to have a slight misfortune has he mirrored James’ mistake on the first lap, allowing the Worthing racer through taking back first position. Colburn managed to soak up the pressure from the challengers behind and bring it home for his first win of the season.
The second race of the weekend did not hold the same fortunes despite starting on pole for it, as James explains “Because of the camber of the track, 9 times out of 10 whoever starts second alongside you will be the first one into the first corner, which happened today unfortunately.” Despite being pushed down to third place after the opening laps, James was still putting in some solid lap times but could not find a way past on the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, finishing third and securing a second podium finish of the weekend.
James is now leading the overall championship and the graduate cup, with his team Westbourne Motorsport also leading the team championship ahead of Rounds 3 and 4 at Donington Park in 3 weeks’ time, a circuit James is confident about “We’re confident of being strong when we head up there in a few weeks, but it entirely depends on the weather as none of us have had any testing on these tyres in warm temperatures but I’m definitely hoping to pick up where I left off.”