A POSITIVE midweek test session at Thruxton has given Rory Collingbourne a big confidence boost going to Donington Park this weekend for the next two races in the Renault UK Clio Cup.

Newport teenager Collingbourne was consistently on the pace of the race leaders during the season opener at Brands Hatch but could only manage finishes of 13th and 22nd.

Teammate Lee Pattison won the second of those two races, demonstrating what could have been for Collingbourne had his qualifying not been hampered by a broken damper in the lead up to the session.

Collingbourne and his race-winning engineering team at Team Cooksport headed to the notoriously challenging Thruxton circuit this week along with the rest of the championship entrants for an official test day.

The drivers and teams were faced with changeable weather conditions in addition to the high-speed nature of the Hampshire circuit and its unique challenges regarding tyre degradation.

In the wet, Collingbourne topped the timesheets with apparent ease, sailing round in a time of one minute 29.918 seconds on his very first flying lap.

As a dry line began to emerge, Collingbourne remained at the sharp end of the field and eventually finished the second free practice session in a commendable third.

The MSA Academy athlete, who is backed by Newport Auctions, Add Energy and Europa Group among others, will now head to the venue of the 1993 European Grand Prix for another two action-packed races.

Collingbourne is confident that on an engineering and competitive front both he and the team are ready to make amends for the slightly bumpy start to the new season.

“We’re in a good place heading to Donington,” he said. “We know exactly what we want from the car in terms of its setup, and it’s a circuit I always run very well at.

“We proved at Brands Hatch we had the pace to compete with the frontrunners, and if we can avoid any hitches in qualifying, like we had two weeks ago, then we should be at the front end of the field where we deserve to be.

“The midweek test at Thruxton was very positive and it just reinforced to us how much potential both me and the car have as a package.

“It was certainly nice to be giving the established championship contenders something to think about, and the fact the weather kept changing just shows we can produce the goods on a wet or a dry circuit – and there is a big difference!

“I have to pay credit to Team Cooksport, their engineering performance and strategy at the Thruxton test showed why they have been so successful in the series, and it gives me even more confidence going into the weekend.”