Clio Winter Cup 2006 at Croft – ROUND 3+4 – WINTER CHAMPION!!!
NIKI LANIK, semi-professional racing driver, mentioned by UK’s leading Motorsport magazines, Autosport, Motorsport News, won the 2006 ELF Renault Clio Winter Cup on Saturday 11th November. The Austrian, who races for Drive 4 Life with Stancombe Vehicle Engineering, only made his Clio Cup debut at Donington Park in round 11 of this year’s series and managed a decent run of results, backed up by his mature performance in the Winter Cup, which he won by 24 points with 4 pole positions, 2 fastest laps, a second place and 3 race wins!
Just 2 weeks ago, when the 19-year old racer entered rounds 1 & 2 at Brands Hatch, he set pole with his Drive4Life Clio 0.6s in front of 2nd place qualifier Ray MacDowall for both of the weekend’s races. Niki came away with 2 wins and a fastest lap. This was a stunning performance in front of 10,000 spectators at the famous Brands Hatch.
The two final rounds where held at Croft’s challenging 2.13 mile circuit. Niki Lanik had never raced at Croft before, but nevertheless, he secured pole position once again for rounds 3 and 4 for the final by 0.213s.
Lanik encountered no problems in race one, making a clean start and pushing the car to its limits through-out the first few corners and chicanes, which gave him a gap of 0.8s to 2nd place man, James Williams, at the end of the first lap, which he stretched to 1.5s after just three tours. With every driver racing equal equipment in the Clio Renaultsport 182 touring car, the gaps remained fairly consistent throughout the 12-lap race distance. Lanik set the fastest lap of the race on lap four at 1min 34.299s (average 81.20mph), which was more than 0.6s quicker than the rest of the field! Lanik cruised home to take his 3rd victory in 3 races by at stunning 9.492s.
The second race of the day, round 4, brought the 2006 season to a close, after a heavy lunchtime rain shower, this caused the drivers to opt for wet weather tyres. Niki had an average start, and not risking too much, got passed by the first corner by Ray MacDowall. Even though MacDowall won the race, Niki reduced the 5s gap between them down to 0.813s with nearly nudging Ray wide on the last corner on the last lap with a possible 4th win. Even though Niki settled for 2nd place, he had won the 2006 Clio Winter Cup.
Commenting on his title victory, Austrian-born Lanik said: “It feels great to win the title and I have to thank the people in my team, especially Colin [Niki's race engineer], for their help in learning this circuit so quickly. I made a good start in race one and then was able to improve my lap times during the race and set fastest lap, and so I was quite comfortable by the end. I almost managed to catch Ray in the second race, but I knew all I had to do was finish so it wasn’t worth risking any overtaking moves!”
Niki graduated with honours from Greenfields School, Forest Row, in July 2005 with 4 A-Levels. “I have to say, in racing, knowing a good deal of maths, physics and chemistry really helps my engineer and I to come to a good understanding on how to set the car up, set pole positions and win races!” commented Niki on his education. Colin Stancombe, Niki’s race engineer, has been racing for over 35 years and won a lot of championships over the years. He used to work in the engine development department at Ford UK, giving him an excellent background on auto engineering.
Niki will be racing in next year’s 2007 ELF Renault Clio Cup, which is televised on ITV1 and MotorsTV, and will go for more pole positions and race wins. If anybody is interested in sponsoring or supporting this, please visit www.vibrant.ms or e-mail Niki personally on niki@lanik.info
The Drive4Life UK and the Narconon UK Race Team are throwing an end-of-season “race team party” were JJ Vannier and Niki Lanik will show videos and talk about their achievements from the 2006 race season. Other racers, championship winners and engineers will also join them. Everybody is welcome! For more info e-mail party@vibrant.ms
