WHORTON-EALES MAINTAINS CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD DESPITE RETIREMENT
Ant signs autographs for his young fans
For Immediate Release
Shenstone’s Ant Whorton-Eales has retained the lead in the Rookie Cup of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup, despite his first retirement of the season at Snetterton.
The 18 year old, came into the second half of the season leading his nearest rival Josh Cook, by 14 points. The Clio Cup returned to action following a two month break at Snetterton. During the break, Ant had raced at Snetterton in the Mini Challenge in the JCW Class. The defending Club Class champion got his first JCW class win and also brought home second and third place trophies.
Practice saw Whorton-Eales finish in a very unfamiliar 17th place. However, the Westbourne Motorsport driver did not go out on new tires during the session, whilst others did. When it all mattered on Saturday for qualifying the SSFT, One-Lux and Westbourne Motors sponsored driver did not disappoint. Ant’s time of 2:08.942 was enough to secure a career best Clio Cup qualifying session, finishing in fifth. Ant made the most of his new tires and as a result was the highest of the Westbourne drivers.
Ant’s second best time was enough for tenth place for the second race on Sunday. However, bad luck hit Ant at the worst possible time. He made a great start to the race but the slow start of a car behind saw Ant go for a gap which soon closed. The resulting contact saw the BRDC Rising Star hit the side of the pit wall, causing race ending damage to the suspension before he had even got out of first gear.
Sunday’s race saw Ant make another great start from tenth place and as a result he was up to fifth place by the end of the first lap. Once again Ant got involved in an incident which was not of his doing with Cook and Aaron Williamson. Cook hit the side of Ant’s car causing race ending damage for Cook and Ant with a bent track rod meaning he had steering problems for the rest of the race.
Ant admirably kept going despite the car being far from 100%. His persistence paid off as others in front of him collided and fell back meaning a 13th place finish out of the race. During the race Ant did well to combat the challenge of Simon Belcher, who hounded him for the majority of the 10 lap race.
With Cook’s retirement from the race, Ant picked up enough points to take back the Rookie Cup lead, which Cook briefly took away following Saturday’s race. Despite the setbacks, Ant was in high spirits as the weekend ended, “ it has been a mixed weekend really all around, practice didn’t go as well as I had hoped but we eclipsed that with a fantastic qualifying session and a fifth place starting spot. We changed a few little things on the car between practice and qualifying and it worked well. The race on Saturday was really disappointing; I made a great start and saw the gap. I had to go for it, I am a racing driver and unfortunately this time it closed on me and ended my race. Sunday was a new day, I met some young fans and signed posters for them which was a good start to the day. The car certainly wasn’t at the best following contact from Cook, but we got the finish and some crucial points out of the race. I would like to thank my sponsors, SSFT, One-Lux and Westbourne Motors. I would also like to thank the team again for giving me a fantastic car and it is a real shame we couldn’t do better with it.”
There are three weeks left of the latest break, before the Clio Cup returns to Rockingham in Northamptonshire. With just six rounds to go, it is all to play for as Ant’s season looks set for an exciting climax in the battle for the Rookie Cup.
Feature written by Dan Blake – ( Twitter – @DanBlake88 )