Paul Rivett produced one of the overtaking moves of the season during two strong recovery drives to take a solid haul of points in the Renault UK Clio Cup at Croft.
The three-time champion had a disappointing qualifying session in very wet conditions and could only achieve ninth and eighth starting positions for the two races.
But that didn’t prevent the WDE Motorsport driver from charging up the order. He was up to seventh by the end of the first lap of the opener and continued to work his way through the field, passing Max Coates for fourth at Tower with two laps to go.
He had to do it all again in race two and made a brilliant start surge up to fourth. He then set about closing in on James Colburn, despite rain arriving part-way through the race.
On lap 11 of 15 he made a move around the outside of Tower and Colburn gave him enough room to power ahead on the outside through the Esses. It was a breathtaking pass and sealed a podium for Rivett.
“From a fairly poor qualifying of ninth and eighth, I had two good races to finish fourth and third,” he said. “I enjoy races where I fight through but I’ve got to be qualifying better. We didn’t throw enough wet tyres at it.”
But Rivett was delighted to end his weekend on a positive with that Colburn move.
“I just thought I’ve got to go for it and I knew the guys I was racing with and went for it,” he said.
Those results mean Rivett remains third in the standings but he is now 81 points behind leader and double Croft winner Mike Bushell.
The Clio Cup now has a summer break with the next rounds of the championship at Snetterton on July 29/30.