Tough End To Knockhill Race For Morgan

Rounds 13 and 14 of the Renault UK Clio Cup ventured north of border to Scotland to race at Knockhill. It was a welcome return to the calendar after a brief absence as the circuit offers some extremely unique corners which present a great challenge to the drivers.   As testing started on Friday, Morgan wasted no time in getting on the pace and set fastest lap times from the outset. After completing race runs in the first session, he ended up 5^th quickest. The second session was even better for Morgan as he topped the timesheet by the end of the session after practicing a qualifying run and his lap put him top of the combined time sheet.   For qualifying, the track was drying making it extremely challenging for the drivers. With the times getting better every lap, it was important to stay on the track and to conserve the tyres for a last lap dash. Due to a red flag in the middle of the session, Morgan went back out on his second set of new tyres which proved to be the wrong decision as the tyres had passed their best when the track was at its driest. By the end of the session, despite being only 0.2s from a front row qualifying position, Morgan line up p6 and p7 for the two races which was disappointing considering the pace in testing.   Nevertheless, Morgan was keen to make an impression in the races and after making a brilliant start in race 1, he quickly moved up to 5^th place ahead of Paul Rivett. In the early stages of the race Morgan had the pace to attack teammate Ash Hand for 4^th place before the safety car came out. On the restart Morgan was put under pressure from Paul Rivett which enabled the front four to break away. By the midway stage however Morgan had put some space between him and the ensuing pack but was left chasing the front four for the remainder of the race before finishing a respectable 5^th place.   For race 2, Morgan was confident of making progress up the order after making a few changes to the car setup. Unfortunately after making a good start, some contact on lap 1 caused damage to the car making the race a much more difficult challenge. Matters were made worse when Morgan had to take evasive action to avoid a collision between Paul Rivett and Josh Cook which cost him three places and left him 10^th in the race order. After a race long battle with Colburn and Cook, Morgan took a 10^th place finish to secure some more crucial championship points.   Morgan said:

It’s been an up and down weekend having been fastest in testing on Friday and then being caught out in qualifying on the drying track. It was encouraging however to have good pace and it has been a while since I was at the front of the pack again. The races didn’t go our way which was unfortunate but we had two more points finishes and maintained 6^th in the championship. I’ll be looking to carry the pace through to Rockingham and hope we can have a clean run and climb back up the championship table

  With only two weeks until the next race meeting at Rockingham UK, there won’t be a long break before the Clio Cup is back in action for the penultimate round of the Championship. Morgan lies 6^th in the standings and will be looking to fight his way back into the top three by the end of the season!