James Colburn could only come away with a chunk of points as his quest to return to the podium for the first time since the beginning of the season continued at Oulton Park Circuit, Cheshire last weekend.
Hoping to not have a repeat of events last year after having a heavy shunt in qualifying and two retirements, James was at the sharp end of the grid in the two free practise sessions where he put a time up good enough for 6th in both sessions.
Qualifying for Rounds 7 and Rounds 8 was a very tight affair with only a second separating the top 18 drivers. The 20 year old from Worthing put his Westbourne Motorsport Clio 10th on the grid for both rounds, just over 3 and a half tenths of the pole lap time.
For the first race of the weekend, Colburn got one of his traditional good stars and had made up two positions on the first lap, and then another two on the second lap putting him up to 6th place. James battled with fellow Clio Cup veteran Lee Pattison for 5th place but was unable to make a move stick and did not want to put his points-scoring finish in jeopardy so settled into finishing 6th.
For round 8 James again got off the line very well indeed and jumped up three position’s by the time the pack sorted themselves out for the first corner. James was this time trying to steal 6th position from another Graduate Class Driver, Josh Cook, but was wary of keeping his tyres in check to avoid getting caught behind him. A safety car period and a red flag stoppage put an end to any chance of Colburn making any more progress up the grid and finished 7th place.
James comes away from the weekend sitting 4th in the overall championship, 54 points behind leading driver Paul Rivett, and 2nd in the Graduate Cup Class just 10 points behind Josh Files.
The Clio Cup Paddock’s next destination is the Croft Circuit in Darlington, North Yorkshire which the Clio’s have not visited since 2011 and James will again be determined to replicate his race winning form from the beginning of the season on the 22nd / 23rd June, coverage of which you can watch on ITV4.