The Grid

Securing his third class victory in as many attempts during the prestigious Silverstone 24 Hour Race and making an impact on the one-make ELF Renault Clio Cup series during his first full season in the category, 2008 was a memorable year for Jonathan Ridley-Holloway.

With no karting experience to call on prior to his car racing debut back in 2004, the North Devon driver has made excellent progress over the last few seasons and the past year’s competition really saw him come of age.

Having cut his teeth in the world of endurance competition, Jonathan decided at the end of 2007 it was time to make the switch to sprint racing in the one-make Clio Cup. To that end, he chose to graduate to the category for last year’s winter series prior to the major test of the main 2008 Clio Cup in support of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Maintaining his association with endurance racing though, the 24-year-old enjoyed his greatest success of the year during September’s Silverstone 24 Hour Race; the UK’s answer to the legendary classic which is staged at Le Mans, France, every year.

Driving with Barnstaple based TJH Motorsport for his third attempt at the 24 Hour event, Jonathan had huge success in his Honda Civic Type R along with team-mates Simon Mason and Paul Collis by taking Class victory, and also finishing a stunning sixth overall, against the might of GT3 cars like Moslers, Porsches and several Marcos Mantis entries.

Most impressively was the fact Jonathan combined two night stints at the wheel of the Honda Civic with a brace of outings in his Clio on the very same weekend! In a single 24 hour period, he achieved an outstanding result at Silverstone while also equalling his season’s best effort in Clios with a seventh place finish at Brands Hatch in Kent during the category finale.

“The Silverstone 24 Hour result was fantastic but to do so well in the two Clio races on the same weekend was just incredible”, reflected Jonathan, “It was a major ask to do all of the travelling between Silverstone and Brands Hatch and to stay sharp for the racing but it all worked out better than I could have wished, I absolutely loved it!”

Competing with the crack Total Control Racing squad in the ELF Renault Clio Cup, Jonathan didn’t take long at all to become a top 10 finisher in the championship with a ninth place result at Rockingham during the third round of the season.

He equalled that finish at Thruxton during the first of two races at his most local venue, albeit still some 125 miles from his Barnstaple residence, and then at Croft he fought his way into a career best Clio Cup finish of seventh place during round 10, concluding the first half of the season in great form.

When the championship resumed after its summer break, Jonathan enjoyed a run of four straight points scores with his fourth top 10 of the campaign coming at Snetterton during the 14th round.

From the final six races, he scored in four with the last two at Brands Hatch marking his best weekend of the year – ninth place in round 19 and seventh in round 20. Ending the season 15th overall in the standings, 2008 was most certainly good for the North Devon driver.

Competing in three races in the space of a 24 hour period was always going to be a huge challenge for North Devon racer Jonathan Ridley-Holloway; but what a weekend it turned out to be as he equalled his best ever ELF Renault Clio Cup finish and won his class for the third year in succession in the Silverstone 24 Hour Race!

Undoubtedly providing the highlight of his short racing career to date, the 24-year-old from Barnstaple achieved a superb top seven result during the final round of the ELF Renault Clio Cup season at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent on Sunday, 21st September, to add to a terrific ninth place finish during round 19 on Saturday.

In between his commitments with the Total Control Racing team at Brands Hatch, the West Country driver also drove two lengthy night stints at the wheel of Devon based TJH Motorsport’s Honda Civic Type R in the fourth annual instalment of the Britcar 24 Hour Race at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in Northamptonshire.

Joining Paul Collis and Simon Mason as part of a three-driver entry in the burgeoning endurance encounter, Jonathan helped the squad achieve a superb top six finish overall against the might of Mosler GT3 cars, Porsches, Aston Martins and BMWs. The result also saw TJH conclude the event first in Class 4, some 41 laps ahead of the next car.

Since its inauguration in 2005, Jonathan has been a regular fixture of the Silverstone 24 Hour Race and having enjoyed class wins with TJH for the past two years, this 2008 instalment of the event saw the squad taste the champagne of success once more.

“It’s been a mega weekend, I’m buzzing after having such a good run in the Clio today and yesterday and also winning our class in the 24 Hour race and finishing sixth overall, it’s been absolutely fantastic”, said a delighted Jonathan, “It’s my best weekend ever, a really special set of results and a cracking way to end the season.

“The 24 Hour race was great, we really could have won it overall which would have been amazing but we had one or two problems which cost us a lot of time. To finish sixth though and first in class is a fantastic result and I want to say a huge thank you to Paul Collis and everyone at TJH Motorsport for the opportunity.”

Starting Saturday afternoon’s 19th round of the ELF Renault Clio Cup in 10th position on the grid after a solid performance in qualifying, Jonathan made a great start and climbed into eighth place on the opening lap.

Slipping behind TCR team-mate Alex MacDowall on lap four, Jonathan remained in ninth all the way to the chequered flag. His best lap of the race, 53.685 seconds was just three 10ths of a second shy of the fastest lap of all, posted by MacDowall.

Immediately after the first Clio encounter on Saturday, Jonathan travelled back to Silverstone to take part in two night stints at the wheel of the Honda Civic Type R, a totally different discipline to the sprint race he completed in his TCR-run Clio, before returning to Brands Hatch on Sunday morning.

For round 20, the Bond Oxborough Phillips, A4 Apparel and PicoPC.co.uk backed racer started 12th on the grid courtesy of his second best lap in qualifying. On the opening lap, another great start saw him gain four positions to move into the top eight before slipping to ninth just before the Safety Car was deployed due to a couple of cars off the circuit.

At the re-start on lap five, Jonathan tried to challenge eighth placed Lee Pattison into Graham Hill Bend as the cars from second to ninth were all in very close proximity. On lap 14 though a spin for Gavin Pyper at Druids Hairpin, in which Pattison also became caught-up, enabled Jonathan to move into seventh place.

As the race neared its conclusion, Jonathan was almost pitched into a spin at Graham Hill Bend under braking but he recovered nicely and managed to hold on to seventh place even though he received contact to the rear from Max Hunter’s car. Jonathan concludes his maiden season of Clio Cup action 15th in the driver standings.

Covering hundreds of miles over the course of the weekend travelling back and forth between venues, and having very little rest in between, proved no problem for Jonathan as he capped off his season in the best possible style and he’s now looking ahead to 2009 confidently.

He said: “I definitely want to be back racing in Clios next year but we have to attract some more sponsors to make that happen so if anybody is reading this and wants to get involved, please do contact us! The guys at TCR have done a fantastic job, they’re an incredible team to work with and I’ve really enjoyed the year.

“The car felt really good and if I had been a little bit quicker through Paddock Hill Bend and Druids we could have finished even higher as the rest of the lap was sorted. I’ve shown I’ve improved as the year has gone on, especially during the second half of the season. If I’m back in Clios in 2009, I’m confident we can go well.”

ELF Renault Clio Cup rookie Jonathan Ridley-Holloway was left ruing his bad luck at Silverstone National Circuit this afternoon, Sunday, 31st August, after being caught up in a highly unfortunate, multi-car tangle during round 18 of the season.

With hopes high heading into the weekend, especially after a promising testing effort on Friday, 29th August, where he achieved the 11th fastest time to outpace the likes of series front-runner Philip Glew and former British Touring Car Championship racer Matt Allison, the Barnstaple driver produced a good run in qualifying to confirm his top 10 potential.

Securing a row six start for rounds 17 and 18, Jonathan looked well on course to attain a brace of good points finishes but two luckless outings restricted the 24-year-old’s expected progress.

At the start of Saturday’s 17th round, Jonathan got away fairly well in his Total Control Racing prepared Clio Cup racer and stayed ahead of former BTCC star Allison on the run to Copse Corner for the first time.

Into Brooklands, Jonathan slipped to 12th place but he fought back immediately into Luffield to regain his position. Allison then re-passed Jonathan on lap two but lap eight was one of the turning points of the race when the TCR man had a moment which cost him several places.

Running in 15th position on lap nine, Jonathan gained a place with the demise of Allison as the race order began to settle down. That is until the 18th, and final, lap when the Bond Oxborough Phillips, A4 Apparel and PicoPC.co.uk backed driver was pipped into 16th position on the run to the chequered flag.

Disappointed with the result, especially as his lap times were good enough for a top 10 placing, worse luck was to follow on Sunday during round 18 when Jonathan was forced into retirement on lap three after being caught up in a collision involving four cars.

With track conditions tricky due to persistent rain, incidents were always likely and Jonathan was unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time on lap three when minor contact with Chaz Small triggered a bigger moment involving Jeff Smith and Robert Gaffney.

The latter speared off the circuit after being tagged by Smith and he took Jonathan’s car with him, nose-first into the barriers at the entry to the pitlane. Regardless of the incidents, Jonathan at least maintains 15th position in the championship.

Commenting on the collision, he said: “Going through Luffield it was all quite tight, I was turned around by (Chaz) Small, that caused me to clip Jeff Smith, he then hit (Robert) Gaffney and he speared me off into the barrier. It was a big old smash which caused a fair bit of damage to the car, not what we need at this stage of the season.

“I was really looking forward to Silverstone, we knew we would be competitive and after qualifying just outside the top 10 everything looked well placed for a couple of good races. It’s a shame it didn’t turn out that way but it’s been the way of the season really, we’ll hopefully have something to cheer at Brands Hatch during the season finale.”

Total Control Racing’s Jonathan Ridley-Holloway had mixed fortunes at Oulton Park Island Circuit in Cheshire over the weekend, 26th/27th July, the ELF Renault Clio Cup racer just missing out on his fifth top 10 result of the 2008 championship.

The 24-year-old Barnstaple driver, who is backed by A4 Apparel, PicoPC.co.uk and Bond Oxborough Phillips, started both Oulton Park races from 11th place on the grid having produced a consistent performance in qualifying with laps of 1m 35.906 seconds (83.55mph) and 1m 36.103 seconds.

Round eight was the better of the two encounters for Jonathan, an action-packed race seeing him fightback from a less than fruitful opening lap to just miss out on a top 10 finish by 1.5 seconds at the chequered flag.

Slipping down to 14th position on the run through Cascades, the North Devon driver then lost a couple more positions at the hairpin. However, chaos would ensue at the start of lap two when a spin for Robert Gaffney at Old Hall caught out several cars behind with a number being involved in the collision.

Jonathan managed to thread his way through the carnage to emerge out of Cascades in 12th position before the Safety Car was deployed in time for the start of lap three. It later became apparent though, Jonathan had picked up some steering damage following contact from another car which compromised his competitiveness.

At the re-start on lap five, Jonathan was challenged by Lea Wood on the inside at Cascades but the TCR man moved back ahead before the end of the lap. Slipping back behind Wood again shortly after, Jonathan’s next target became Chris Rice who had also fallen behind Wood.

Passing Rice for 12th place on lap 12, Jonathan immediately started to pull away and attempted to get on terms with Paul Rivett. On the penultimate lap, an accident for TCR team-mate Alex MacDowall at Druids meant Jonathan and Rivett moved up a place each so he would eventually take the chequered flag on lap 14 in 11th position.

“It’s not a bad result to end the weekend with but we did have the pace to be higher up”, said Jonathan at the end of round 16, “Unfortunately I got a whack from David Shepherd’s car on my front left wheel early on and that seemed to have damaged the steering. I thought I had a puncture at first, it may have been a combination of the two.”

Saturday’s 15th round of the season ended on lap seven for Jonathan at the hairpin when, running in 11th position, there was contact with Niki Lanik and Steven Hunter as the trio negotiated the turn. Eliminating the Devon racer from proceedings with broken steering, he held his hands up to the error of judgement.

“There were yellow flags at the hairpin which I hadn’t seen as I went down the inside of (Niki) Lanik”, explained Jonathan, “I tried to back off but there was contact, the steering broke and then I had contact with (Steven) Hunter too. It was really unfortunate but one of those things.

“It’s disappointing to come away with an 11th place as all we have to show from the weekend but our lap times were good so we have to take positives from that. From a team perspective, I’m really pleased for the TCR boys with Stefan (Hodgetts) winning the second race and Mike (Robinson) getting on to the podium too – a great result for TCR.”

ELF Renault Clio Cup rookie Jonathan Ridley-Holloway produced one of the best race performances of his debut season in the category at Snetterton on Sunday, 13th July, during an exciting 14th round of the championship.

The Barnstaple driver qualified for the race 14th on the grid and looked in form throughout the second of the weekend’s races, serving up a series of overtaking moves on the likes of former British Touring Car Championship competitor Gavin Pyper and multiple Clio Cup champion Paul Rivett.

Ending the race a highly creditable ninth, just four 10ths of a second shy of Total Control Racing team-mate Mike Robinson at the chequered flag, Jonathan produced front-running pace throughout. His fastest lap of the race, 1m 18.591 seconds was actually just three 10ths of a second outside the best managed by eventual winner Ben Winrow.

“It was a brilliant race”, commented the 24-year-old at the conclusion, “I didn’t get a bad start and then just went through and made a few places, it was great. I got a hell of an exit through Sear every time. I picked off (Gavin) Pyper, got by (Paul) Rivett and passed (Lee) Pattison too with some good moves.”

After negotiating the first two corners of the race safely, Jonathan moved into 13th as he headed down Revett Straight on lap one and emerged from the Bomb Hole ahead of Pyper in 12th place before also moving ahead of Pattison.

Running in 10th place on lap four, the A4 Apparel, PicoPC.co.uk and Bond Oxborough Phillips backed racer pressed on before passing vastly experienced Clio Cup competitor Paul Rivett on lap six for ninth position into the Esses.

On lap eight, the Safety Car was deployed and it remained on track until lap 10. At the re-start, Jonathan got away cleanly and shadowed team-mate Robinson to the flag on lap 18.

“It really was a mega race”, added the North Devon star, “Unfortunately I couldn’t get Mike (Robinson) but he was really struggling towards the end. After the Safety Car I just didn’t have quite the same rhythm but I’m delighted with the result and also our competitiveness this weekend.”

Saturday’s 13th round wasn’t as fruitful for Jonathan after an opening lap drama saw him drop from his grid position of 15th down to 25th place. Fighting hard as the race progressed, the North Devon racer had climbed into the top 18 just prior to a Safety Car period on lap eight which coincided with light rainfall starting.

At the re-start on lap 13, and with the rain ceasing again, Jonathan stayed ahead of reigning ELF Renault Clio Winter Cup Champion Niki Lanik and after taking 17th place at the Bomb Hole on lap 14, he moved ahead of TCR team-mate Fulvio Mussi for 16th at the Esses during the next tour, where he would remain to the chequered flag.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t be in the top 10 on Saturday as we definitely had the pace but I’m pleased with how we’ve gone in general at Snetterton and it’s given us a good boost for the next two races in a couple of weeks”, said Jonathan, “I absolutely love Oulton Park so I’m feeling confident we can go there and achieve a couple of good finishes.”

Total Control Racing’s Jonathan Ridley-Holloway saw the promise of a season’s best result at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit go begging yesterday, Sunday, 8th June, after contact in both of the weekend’s races saw a brilliant qualifying effort unfortunately deliver little in the way of reward.

Competing as part of the second biggest motor racing event in the country this year, the British round of the World Series by Renault, the Barnstaple-based ELF Renault Clio Cup racer produced a terrific performance in qualifying to claim eighth position on the grid for round 11 with a time of 2m 09.851 seconds (142.5km/h).

At the start of the first encounter, Jonathan – who celebrates his 24th birthday a little under three weeks from now – got away cleanly from the fourth row of the grid to follow team-mate Mike Robinson through Copse but on entry to the corner his Clio received a whack from behind, pitching Jonathan into a slide.

Recovering well, but having lost places, the category rookie pressed on and into lap two was down in 14th position with a lot of work to do to try and make up the ground he lost through no fault of his own.

Involved in a tight battle with Alex Osborne, David Dickenson and Aron Smith, Jonathan looked well placed to mount a challenge for a top 12 placing as the race headed towards mid distance but yet more contact shuffled him back further to an eventual finish of 18th.

Disappointed, especially considering the top eight pace he produced in testing and qualifying, the Bond Oxborough Phillips, PicoPC.co.uk and A4 Apparel supported racer headed into round 12 full of optimism for an improved performance. This he at least got with a top 12 finish and much needed points towards his top 15 championship battle.

Gaining two places on the opening lap, Jonathan then moved past Chris Rice on the second tour into 15th place before the Safety Car was deployed due to the stricken cars of Stephen Tyldsley and Chris Panayiotou being in need of recovery.

At the re-start on lap six, the North Devon racer got away well behind Lee Pattison and tagged on to a train of four other cars all battling over 11th place. Incredibly close to Pattison, but unable to make a decisive move, into lap nine Jonathan’s target became Richard Cannon who had slipped to 14th place.

Another Safety Car period came on lap 11 following an accident involving Gavin Pyper and Alex Osborne. The result of their tangle was a collision for Carl Bradley, the removal of him from the equation seeing Jonathan move back into 13th place ahead of the start of the cautionary period.

At the re-start, over just one lap, Jonathan gained another place when Niki Lanik crashed out into the gravel. This allowed the TCR man to claim his fifth top 12 result of his debut season in the ELF Renault Clio Cup, from 21 finishers.

Speaking on the weekend, the TCR star said: “Race one was really disappointing, we had very good pace and after qualifying I felt confident we could do a good job but I got a whack from behind going through Copse on the first lap and my race fell apart from there really. To get a top 12 in race two wasn’t too bad but it’s not what I wanted.

“The pace is definitely coming now, we were in the top eight in testing and qualifying so I know with some better fortune we’ll be able to move up the order towards the championship top 10. We’ve been bashed about a bit this weekend but hopefully at Snetterton in three weeks we’ll be ok.”

Following the weekend’s action, which was watched by an incredible combined crowd attendance of 110,000 over the course of the two days, Jonathan is 16th in the driver standings on 77 points, just 18 points shy of the top 12.

Jonathan Ridley-Holloway concluded by far his most successful race weekend of the 2008 ELF Renault Clio Cup at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire yesterday, Sunday, 1st June, to climb to within just three points of the championship top 15.

The 23-year-old, who lives in Barnstaple, is improving with every outing in his Total Control Racing prepared Clio Cup race car and at Croft yesterday he took a superb top seven finish during the 10th round of the campaign – just missing out on sixth place by a mere three 10ths of a second at the chequered flag.

Travelling to Croft on Friday for pre-event testing, Jonathan instantly performed well and posted the seventh fastest time in practice, pace he carried through to qualifying on Saturday.

Lining up seventh on the grid for yesterday’s 10th round of the season, Jonathan didn’t make the best start but soon made his way into the top eight and then began to catch Aron Smith and Alex Osborne ahead.

With the latter running wide at the hairpin at the end of lap eight, Smith nipped through to sixth place and Jonathan managed to snatch seventh. The Bond Oxborough Phillips, A4 Apparel and PicoPC.co.uk backed racer pressured Smith all the way to the finish and in the process pulled some 2.4 seconds clear of Osborne over the last four laps.

“I’m really happy with the performance I showed on Sunday, pace wise it wasn’t bad at all and especially considering we struggled with set-up a bit in qualifying”, commented Jonathan, “Thanks to my consistent second fastest lap though it put us on row four and that gave me the chance to run with the other front guys which was a lot of fun.

“I didn’t get a great start to the race, I dropped to eighth at the first corner and then my car was smacked on entry to Hawthorn which almost had me facing the wrong way round. I managed to catch the car though, got it all pointing in the right direction and went on to have a good race.”

During Saturday’s ninth round, Jonathan took the chequered flag in 14th position but this later became a top 12 finish when Chris Law was handed a time penalty and Gavin Pyper was excluded from the results.

Ridley-Holloway Promotes ‘Devon Pride’
This weekend’s races at Croft saw the roof of Jonathan’s Clio Cup race car adorned with the Flag of Devon – St Petroc’s Cross – as the young saloon car star bids to promote his Devonian roots through his racing.

Taking into account his season’s best result during round 10 on Sunday, the presence of the flag looks to have already had a major bearing on his level of success and Jonathan is now aiming to attract increased support for his racing career from local businesses.

“This weekend was the first this year where I’ve run with the Flag of Devon on the roof of my car and it coincided with my best ever result in Clios – hopefully that kind of luck will continue”, said Jonathan, “We’re making good progress so hopefully we’ll be able to attract some additional local sponsors to help us make even bigger strides in 2009.”

Total Control Racing’s Jonathan Ridley-Holloway served up an excellent performance during the seventh round of the ELF Renault Clio Cup over the weekend, 17th/18th May, the Barnstaple racer equalling his previous best with a competitive ninth place finish.

Racing at his nearest venue, Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire, the 23-year-old qualified strongly on Saturday with the 12th fastest time of 1m 24.764 seconds (100.06mph) although this later became 10th on the grid when Mardi Gras Motorsport team-mates Gavin Pyper and Aron Smith were both excluded from the results.

Making a good start, Jonathan didn’t lose ground and ran in 10th place as the Safety Car was deployed on lap two following an opening lap incident. At the re-start on lap five, he resisted pressure from Carl Bradley and then problems for Derek Pierce on lap seven saw the TCR star gain a place into ninth.

The PicoPC.co.uk, A4 Apparel and Bond Oxborough Phillips backed driver then closed on team-mate Mike Robinson in eighth position and with nothing more than a few 10ths of a second splitting the pair at any stage, they took the chequered flag line astern on lap 15 less than three 10ths of a second apart.

“I managed to get alongside Mike a couple of times but with him being my team-mate I didn’t want to commit to anything and potentially risk any kind of incident”, commented Jonathan, “Finishing in ninth is pretty good, I’m fairly happy with that and I think this weekend has shown we definitely have the pace to be regularly in the top 10 now.”

Round eight, which took place on Sunday afternoon, saw Jonathan start in 11th place and on the opening lap he climbed up into the top seven with some terrific driving. All looking good for another decent result, the race started to unravel somewhat following a spin on lap three.

Trying to recover, the North Devon racer had another spin on lap six and on lap nine he decided to retire to the pits due to the fact he had flat-spotted tyres which were offering very little in the way of grip – not something any driver wants when driving on the ragged edge through some of the most fearsome corners in UK motorsport.

“The first lap was mega, I made up a lot of places and got up to about seventh place but then I lost the car going through Goodwood and had a bit of a moment”, he added, “I managed to get the car back but then I had another spin the next time around.

“I ended up flat-spotting the tyres and grip was a big problem so I decided to park the car in the pits for safety as it wasn’t worth continuing. It’s a shame we couldn’t finish with another top 10 to add to Saturday’s but I’m still pretty happy with how things have gone overall. Hopefully Croft two weeks from now will be good too.”

Barnstaple’s Jonathan Ridley-Holloway concluded the latest ELF Renault Clio Cup race meeting at Donington Park disappointed with the outcome after being forced into retirement during the second encounter yesterday, Sunday, 4th May

The 23-year-old championship rookie, who has stepped up to the Clio Cup this year from the endurance-based Britcar and Production S1 categories, achieved a top 12 finish during round five on Saturday, 3rd May, but Sunday afternoon’s encounter came to an abrupt end for the Total Control Racing star before he’d even completed a lap.

During qualifying – which was affected by a stoppage part way through due to Jonathan Shepherd colliding with the pitwall – the North Devon racer produced a best lap of 1m 19.469 seconds (88.66mph) and although within a second of pole position, he lined up 20th on the grid.

For the round six grid, Jonathan’s consistency helped him improve as his second fastest qualifying lap of 1m 19.495 seconds was good enough for 18th place. Nonetheless, he was disappointed not to have been closer to the top 10.

Having identified a problem with dampers on his car during the official pre-event test on Thursday, the TCR mechanics rectified the issue but Jonathan couldn’t quite achieve the lap times he wanted in qualifying as he tried to adjust to the different feel of his Clio.

At the start of round five, he enjoyed a great opening lap – avoiding a three car incident at the Old Hairpin – to climb into the top 15. However, the race was red flagged due to the stranded vehicles from the aforementioned collision.

The race got back underway on lap six and after making up a further place due to a spin by team-mate Alex MacDowall, Jonathan then benefited from bad luck for Gavin Pyper on lap nine. Running in 13th position, Jonathan then became locked in a tight battle with four other drivers for the remainder of the race – particularly during the last few laps.

Taking the chequered flag in 13th place, he was later credited with a top 12 finish after Chris Law was excluded from the results due to his involvement in an incident which eliminated Paul Rivett from proceedings.

At the start of Sunday’s sixth round, Jonathan made another good getaway and he looked poised to challenge strongly having gained five positions during the first two thirds of the opening lap. Sadly, contact at Goddards eliminated him from the race.

He commented: “I thought I was ok on the outside of (Niki) Lanik but then I took a hit from another car up the inside and couldn’t do anything about it – my car was damaged and that was the end of the race unfortunately.

“It’s a shame because I’d made a good start and the first lap had gone well up to that point. We were up inside the top 15 and although we should have been higher, it would have at least been a reasonable finish. It’s been a bit of a weekend to forget in all honesty, the points on Saturday were welcome but I wasn’t happy with my pace.”

The next event on the 2008 ELF Renault Clio Cup calendar sees the championship visit Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire on 17th/18th May. Even though the venue is well over 100 miles from Jonathan’s North Devon home, it’s still classed as his ‘home’ track so he’ll be hoping for his best outing of the season so far in his PicoPC.co.uk, Bond Oxborough Phillips and A4 Apparel backed car.

In the meantime, highlights of the Clio Cup action from the first event of the season at Brands Hatch will be screened tomorrow, Tuesday, 6th May, at 17.00 on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4 as part of the Motorsport UK magazine programme.

Total Control Racing’s Jonathan Ridley-Holloway secured his first top 10 finish of the ELF Renault Clio Cup season at Rockingham yesterday, Sunday, 13th April, and instantly promised further improvements as he gets more and more comfortable within the ranks of the UK’s most competitive, one-make, saloon car championship.

Qualifying on Saturday, 12th April, saw the 23-year-old produce his most impressive performance at the wheel of a Clio since graduating to the category during the 2007 ELF Renault Clio Winter Cup, a best time of 1m 31.723 seconds (76.14mph) placing him seventh on the grid for the first of the weekend’s two races.

Come the start of round three though on Sunday morning, the Barnstaple racer found himself starting one place further ahead on row three after team-mate Alex MacDowall was served with a penalty for a technical infringement.

At the beginning of the race, Jonathan got away well in his PicoPC.co.uk, A4 Apparel and Bond Oxborough Phillips backed car and although squeezed out at Deene Hairpin as he aimed to stay out of trouble, he slipped a few spots to ninth place.

Thankfully unscathed, he climbed to eighth through Pif-Paf and into lap two looked well placed to make further progress as the race unfolded. The Safety Car then came out onto track at the start of the third tour for a couple of laps.

With the field bunched up, the re-start came on lap five and a great battle ensued between sixth-placed Rob Boston, Lee Pattison in seventh and Jonathan close behind in eighth position.

The TCR ace certainly looked to have the speed to challenge those ahead, his best lap of the race just eight 10ths of a second shy of eventual race winner Ben Winrow’s pace, but he wasn’t quite able to make the breakthrough he wanted.

On lap 14, light rain started to fall to throw another variable into the mix and as the pack ahead of Jonathan started to shuffle, the North Devon racer could see the potential for some opportunities to fall his way. Side-by-side with seventh placed Pattison on lap 15 out of Deene Hairpin, Jonathan frustratingly had to tuck back in at Yentwood.

Having held a solid top eight for almost the entire race, he unfortunately lost out to Aron Smith at the very last turn, Brook Chicane, on lap 16 and so was forced to settle for ninth. Nonetheless, it was a good result and a welcome haul of championship points.

“The main thing for me was to finish inside the top 10 and come away from the race without any damage”, commented Jonathan, “I wanted to get a decent start, stay out of trouble at the first hairpin and then challenge where possible. I had a few good attempts at moving up the order but I’m not too unhappy with ninth.”

Jonathan’s second fastest qualifying lap, determining his grid slot for the fourth round, was some way short of what he had hoped for but this was purely down to the weather.

With a number of quick drivers only able to squeeze one true flying lap in before the skies opened above the 1.94-mile track, the starting order for the second of the weekend’s events proved to be unpredictable.

Lining up with the 17th best time, which became 16th on the grid due to McDowall’s aforementioned penalty, Jonathan got away fairly cleanly but a major collision mere yards behind him at Turn One resulted in the Safety Car being deployed for five laps.

Desperately lucky to avoid being caught up in the four-car incident, Jonathan entered lap two in 17th place and that’s where he would remain for the duration despite his best efforts to make up places.

Reflecting on the second race, Jonathan said: “Rockingham is pretty difficult to overtake on, there’s no doubt about that. I’m so thankful I wasn’t involved in the Turn One accident. At one point, I thought I was going to be collected as I could see what was happening in my mirrors. It all unfolded about a metre behind me.

“Luckily we avoided that and brought the car home in one piece. At Donington for the next two rounds we’ll definitely be up there, I’m sure I can run with the top guys – I’ve no doubts about that at all. I just need to be more consistent in qualifying and get higher up the grid. It’s not been a bad weekend though, I’ve been pretty happy with my pace.”

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