Ben Colburn, younger brother to Clio Cup front runner James Colburn, far exceeded expectations on his first ever race weekend by securing a podium in just his second race of his career in the opening rounds of the Junior Saloon Car Championship at Rockingham.
14-year-old Colburn, piloting a Citroen Saxo, enjoyed a superb qualifying session in which he secured P4 & P3 for Races 1 & 2 respectively, in his first ever competitive timed session. “I never expected that” said a thrilled Colburn, “I was hoping to be around the middle of the pack but to come away with that was awesome, and I just have to thank my driver coach Ed Pead for everything leading up to this weekend.”
The first race of the day however was an unlucky christening to his racing career, as despite getting a great start off the line, a slight mistake saw him fall down the order and despite best efforts to make up the lost ground, he could only finish 9th place. “I did an incorrect gear change at the start and it cost me unfortunately” as Ben continues “I tried to close the gap to the others in front, whilst being wary of the changing weather conditions, but I probably was a bit too cautious in that respect but I’m still pleased to finish and bring the car home with no damage.”
The second and final race of the day this time saw Ben get a traditional Colburn-like good start and converted his starting position into a spot on the podium, having a trouble-free race as he ascertained a healthy 4 second gap between his nearest rival behind. A late challenge on the car infront proved unfruitful and the Westbourne Motors-backed teenager brought the car home in 3rd place. An ecstatic Colburn describes the feeling after securing that first podium in just his first racing weekend “I’m very delighted with 3rd place, an unreal end to what has been an unreal weekend and again I just want to say my thanks to my family and the team for supporting me and giving me a great car to race with this weekend.”
Also at Rockingham was the opening rounds of the Michelin Clio Cup Series where Jacques Mizzi, Anton Spires & Luke Herbert were in action. After an extremely close qualifying session, Jacques qualified 7th & 9th, Luke 9th & 7th, Anton 15th for both races; second in class.
The first race was a case of so near yet so far for the Maltese Jacques Mizzi as he was running in 2nd place for most of the race before making a mistake and retired with a few laps to go causing the race to end under safety car. Anton Spires finished 2nd in class with 8th overall. An incident on the opening lap put Luke out of the race.
The second race saw much better results for Luke as he finished 2nd place and getting his first podium of the season after battling well with David Dickenson for the majority of the race. Anton made it two 2nd in class finishes with an overall position of 13th. Meanwhile Jacques had in incident in the early stages of the race and was forced to retire at the end of lap 3.