YOUNG ON FLYING FORM AS TITLE BATTLE CLOSES UP
Only four points separate Young and Coates with two events remaining
Renault UK Clio Cup
Four points. After 14 races that is all there is separating Max Coates and Jack Young in this year’s Renault UK Clio Cup title fight. While the Clio Cup may have the smallest entries among the British Touring Car Championship’s support series, it also has the smallest gap between the top two in the standings.
Coates and Young again shared the spoils at Knockhill but, unusually, they didn’t come to blows on-track this time. There was, however, a red flag that may well have proved critical to the outcome of the opening contest.
Coates led throughout from pole but Young was on his tail. Despite MRM driver Young starting sixth after a penalty that lingered from his last-lap tangle with his arch-rival at Thruxton, he was up to second within two laps. A safety car, when Ben Colburn’s Clio was stranded, meant Young was soon right on Coates’s bumper.
But on the restart Young made a slight mistake and dropped back. It wasn’t long before he was ready to challenge again – until another error at the chicane.
He was just starting to close in when the race was red-flagged after Tyler Lidsey was seemingly stranded at the hairpin following an opportunistic dive from Finlay Robinson. The clerk of the course had to make a split-second decision and threw the red flag – although Lidsey drove off seconds later.
That left Young frustrated as he believed he had the pace to pass Coates and it denied another entertaining battle between the pair.
“I’ve no idea why they red-flagged it!” Young said. “I was flying through the field, catching Max and then I made a wee mistake. But I was catching him again and I would’ve liked to win it.”
Coates was delighted to win after missing out at Thruxton. “He made a mistake and that was it – it gave me a gap,” he said. “I didn’t expect Jack to be through by lap two! But we led every lap and he couldn’t get past me.”
In race two it was Young’s turn to lead throughout after making a brilliant start. Coates made a “rubbish” getaway and appeared to struggle for pace in the opening stages, Brett Lidsey passing him at the chicane, while Jamie Bond later made slight contact at Duffus.
But Coates grew stronger as the race went on and pounced to take second when Lidsey ran wide into the Mcintyre’s gravel with a third of the race remaining.
“It just didn’t seem as quick as yesterday, I’m not sure why,”
Coates admitted.
It all sets up an intriguing finale to the season with Young adding: “Four points [gap] out of seven rounds shows how competitive the championship is.”