RIVETT HANDED FOURTH CLIO TITLE AFTER COURT VICTORY
Dorlin misses out as Rivett is reinstated into silver stone result
Paul Rivett has become a four-time Renault UK Clio Cup champion after successfully appealing his exclusion from race two at Silverstone in the National Court.
Westbourne Motorsport driver James Dorlin had provisionally claimed the title by five points after winning the Brands Hatch finale – but the result still had a question mark over it pending Rivett’s court hearing.
Now, over a month after the season concluded, the WDE Motorsport driver has successfully argued that his contact with title rival Max Coates at Woodcote was not worthy of an exclusion and his third-place finish was reinstated.
This result was enough to hand Rivett a fourth title by 17 points over Dorlin and dropped Coates to third in the standings.
“I’m over the moon with the result,” said Rivett, whose most recent title came in 2011. “There’s only one other driver [Mike Bushell] who has won more than one title in the Clio Cup so to have four is an amazing achievement – and those are spread over three generations of car and they were all with different teams.
“To be 40 years old and racing against these up and coming young whippersnappers that I’m sure will be the next generation of British Touring Car champions and British GT champions and Le Mans drivers [is great].
“I was confident [of winning the appeal] but you can never be sure. It’s definitely a weight off the shoulders. It’s just a shame we didn’t get to celebrate at Brands Hatch because it’s a team effort.”
WDE team boss Wayne Eason added: “As we proved in court, Paul did nothing wrong. I feel for James Dorlin but he knew it could go this way. Westbourne are great guys so as a team we feel for them but we had to fight for this. I’m delighted for Paul and for the guys in the team.”
Chairman of the court’s panel, Steve Stringwell, said in his report: “The National Court finds no conclusive evidence that Paul Rivett failed to comply with general regulation C1.1.5 – driving in a manner incompatible with general safety and/ or departing from the standard of a reasonably competent driver.
“In reaching its decision, the National Court was also concerned with the inconsistency regarding penalties and track limits and how they were applied during the race.”