Kyle Hornby’s learning curve continued as the Renault UK Clio Cup continued at Donington Park at the weekend. The Stockport youngster claiming a brace of 11th place finishes of the Championship’s bumper 25-car grid.
Hornby, from Hazel Grove, set solid times in Qualifying, just 0.7secs off the Pole lap of Dan Zelos and Lee Pattison, but the closeness of the Renault Clio grid left Kyle in an unsympathetic 18th and 16th placed grid slots for Rounds 3&4 of the 2017 Series. Noticeably the top 19 cars were all within one second of one another around the 1.9mile National layout.
A huge accident involving Lucas Orrock around Donington’s turn two, Hollywood, saw the Race red-flagged immediately, with seven cars unable to make the restart. Kyle, an onlooker to the whole incident, took evasive action to avoid the ensuing mayhem, and made the restart unscathed.Hornby was twelfth after the first lap of the restarted Race, shortened to seven laps because of the delay tidying up, and despite dropping briefly back to 14th the former Poynton High School pupil climbed to 11th place at the flag, the Race won overall by Max Coates.
In the second encounter at the Leicestershire track, Kyle quickly climbed to 12th, while the Race was interrupted by a Safety Car period to recover the cars of Ollie Pidgley and James Colburn, during which the rain had started to fall, and with the entire field on slicks it was an eventful restart on a wet track. The red flags flew just a lap later when the front two collided with each other, Paul Rivett locked up and slid in to team mate Lee Pattison, leaving erstwhile Race leader Pattison stranded in the gravel, Hornby promoted to 11th as the Race was declared a result.
Kyle now sits 14th in the Championship standings, on twenty-five points, while the Series next heads to Thruxton in Hampshire on the 6/7 May, for rounds 5&6 of the 2017 Championship.