Morgan Takes Two Wins On Season Opener At Brands Hatch

After a phenomenal return to racing in 2013, the reigning Renault UK Clio Cup vice champion, immediately made his mark at the first round of the 2014 Renault UK Clio Cup Championship at Brands Hatch last weekend. The race meeting started in perfect fashion for Morgan as he set the quickest time in Practice 1 and only missed out on fastest lap in practice 2 by 0.04s after experiencing a gear actuator issue. On the back of Friday's pace, Morgan soon settled into Saturday's qualifying session setting the fastest time on his first new tyre run and shaved a further 0.05s off on the second set to secure pole position for both of races. The first race took place later that day and the Welsh racer made the most of a good getaway from the line to open up an early lead on the first lap. It was then Morgan and Team Pyro's Rob Smith that broke away from the pack but as the race reached the halfway point, Morgan had opened up the gap which would eventually increase to 4.6 seconds by the chequered flag securing a memorable and dominant victory for the Welsh born racer. The win also meant that Morgan wrote his name in the history books as being the first driver to win a race in the new generation turbo-powered machinery. Race 2 took place on Sunday and after making another fantastic start, Morgan kept the lead into turn 1 ahead of Team Pyro's Mike Bushell and WDE Motorsport's Paul Rivett. Unlike the first race however the fight for first place lasted the entirety of the race which saw the three drivers run nose to tail throughout. Their positions remained the same until two laps from the end as Rivett made a move on Bushell and took 2nd place in the chain which had now expanded to a five car battle. As the race entered its penultimate lap, the drivers were separated by less than a second but Morgan kept his control of the race to bring home the SV Racing car in 1st place securing a double victory and maximum points for the championship. Morgan now heads into the second weekend of action at Donington Park on 19-20 April leading the championship with a maximum haul of 64 points, and a 15 point lead over Mike Bushell. Alex Morgan commented

The weekend started really well on Friday and I knew I had the pace to do well in qualifying. The first set of tyres worked perfectly, I got good space and, although the second set of tyres didn’t work as well, it was enough to take double pole. The start of the first race was critical so I made sure of a good getaway and we had a strict plan not to over-drive the car to start with as we knew the new Clio being a turbo would be prone to front tyre degredation. When the tyres were in I knew I could push hard and try to break the slipstrim from Rob as the new car generates such a tow you need to be two or three tenths faster a lap to break away. We managed to pull a gap later on in the race and it all worked out well with a comfortable win. Race 2 was more of the same but I couldn’t break the slipstream so I concentrated on making no mistakes and controlling the race to the chequered flag. It has been a phenomenal weekend and really couldn’t have wished for more for myself, SV Racing and the KX Akademy which has already been so supportive in my career in 2014.