Thruxton celebrations are marred by death a Clio Cup driver (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Thruxton celebrations are marred by death a Clio Cup driver

ROUNDS nine and ten of the Clio Cup Championship were held at Thruxton recently as a one-off meeting to celebrate 30 years of Renault involvement in UK motorsport.

Although the weekend overall proved reasonably satisfactory from Rob Cullum's point of view, the meeting was over-shadowed by the death of a Clio Cup competitor during round nine on the Saturday.

Kevin Lloyd crashed heavily towards the end of the race and, despite the immediate efforts of doctors and the emergency team, he sadly died at the scene.

At the start of round nine on Saturday, Cullum, from Coln St Aldwyns, made a good start but found it difficult to make much of an impact on the first lap and so slipped down to 13th position.

But making steady progress, he moved up to 12th by the end of lap two, tenth by lap four, ninth by lap five and was eighth by lap six.

On lap seven, Rob was aware that his team mate, Paul Rivett - the 2002 Clio Cup champion and favourite to win this year's championship - was just behind him.

Unfortunately, in letting Rivett past, Cullum also let by another team mate, Jim Edwards, and was now back in tenth place.

The next time they got to the chicane, Edwards lost control and, on rejoining the circuit, delayed himself and Cullum, allowing cars in front to pull out a gap that would make further progress difficult.

At the start of round ten on Sunday, chaos broke out on the first corner, but Rob got through without major delay and, at the end of lap one, was tenth.

At the chicane on the second lap, confusion saw Rob being forced wide and pushed back into 11th place. By the end of lap five, he had moved up to ninth, a position he held until lap 11.

And just when this was looking likely to be his finishing spot, Rob lost two places as the pack slip-streamed up towards the chicane and had to settle for 11th.