Hammerton and Grady join Clio Cup Junior grid
Junior Saloon Car title contender Ethan Hammerton and Ginetta Junior podium finisher Connor Grady are among late entrants to the inaugural Renault UK Clio Cup Junior races at Snetterton this weekend.
Hammerton has starred in his second season of car racing and will now contest the new Clio series with the Jamsport squad, while Grady – currently 10th in the Ginetta standings – will drive for WDE Motorsport ahead of a possible move to the senior series next year.
WDE team boss Wayne Eason said: “Connor will probably be a frontrunner and he’s the right sort of driver for us. He’s doing it as testing to then possibly move to the senior Clio Cup championship next year – it’s a good way of getting an apprenticeship. It’s good for the championship to get a driver of that calibre so early on.”
Also competing for Jamsport will be karting graduate Louis Doyle.
The series was originally due to begin in June but was postponed until September after organisers felt it was not ready to launch.
Two of the drivers originally due to compete in the series, Bradley Burns and Zak Fulk, instead graduated to the main Clio Cup series with Team Pyro at Rockingham last month.
The entry currently stands at seven cars, but this could still rise before the first races and championship manager Will Fewkes is confident for a strong end to the year.
“I think we will see it continue to grow during the season,” Fewkes said. “Once drivers and teams can see the performance of the cars and how cost-effective it is to run them in the two Clio championships I think it will take off.”