Clio Winter Cup 2007 at Donington – ROUND 1+2
LANIK came away last weekend from Donington Park with two incredible 1st places. The Youth 4 Human Rights Race Team’s driver, 2006 Clio Cup Winter Champion, Niki Lanik, won the first two rounds of the 2007 Clio Cup Winter Championship. After Lanik’s disappointing qualifying session on Saturday morning, qualifying 4th and 7th on the grid, his hopes of re-claiming the title for the second year running seemed unlikely.
THURSDAY’S two test sessions showed the Austrian driver was on and beyond the pace at Derbyshire’s Donington race circuit. Qualifying did not go by plan for Lanik, having made a wrong tyre choice, he could not use his slick tyres to his advantage to set two potential pole positions, instead earning him 4th and 7th on the grid for the two 20-minute rounds. “This was the worst qualifying sessions I’ve ever had in my race career. But I reckon it helped me win both races as I was quite annoyed!” commented 20-year old Lanik.
IN Round 1 the Youth 4 Human Rights driver made a fantastic start from the 2nd row of the grid taking the lead by the first corner. He held the lead for 6 laps after being caught out by the tricky weather conditions – very light rain and low temperatures affected the performance of the rear slick tyres of the race Clio. Lanik had a big sideways moment at Redgate, the first corner of the circuit, causing him to drop to 3rd. With the temperature dropping continuously, this made Niki use race tactics, putting the two drivers in front in awkward positions, such as forcing them off the racing lines. Lanik took the lead back on the 2nd last lap, but locking up his front tyres on the last corner of the 2nd last lap, Niki lost the lead by 1.341 seconds. The young racer knew he had to drive a perfect last lap in the tricky conditions, with the back of the car continuously loosing grip through corners. Lanik then made the move for the lead at Copice, the second last corner, which put him in the right position for the last corner, the chicane. Lanik then won the race by 0.124 seconds – 2/3 of a car length across the finish line.
“THIS was the most intense race I’ve ever raced in. I had an awesome start, then I lead the race for a while, then I got really sideways a few times because of the light rain, and battling for 1st place with Andrew Herron for 9 laps, after managing my first win of 2007!” Lanik commented.
ROUND 2 of the Winter Championship found Niki Lanik starting 7th on the starting grid. Once again the youngster gets a brilliant start slotting into 5th before the first corner, and into 2nd place coming out the first corner. Running in 2nd place for most of the first lap, Niki made the move at Copice to take the lead once again. From there on Niki led the race and won it outright to the flag after fourteen more laps. “This was an incredible weekend! I thought my hopes for winning the championship a second year in a row were over after messing up my tyre choice in qualifying, but I was wrong! I’m now leading the championship by a healthy margin! I had two great starts and my first laps in each of the two races were perfect! And on top of that my engineer, Colin Stancombe, and the team really believe in me, so that’s always a nice thing to have in my mind. I’m so happy to have won these two races this weekend at Donington Park!” Niki said smiling and holding his two trophies and a garland around his neck.
“NIKI really put together a fantastic and mature drive this weekend. I’m very impressed!” commented Colin Stancombe, six time racing champion, on Lanik’s double race win, “It shows brilliant engineering and fantastic driving performance!” Lanik will be running with Stancombe Vehicle Engineering again next season. The Youth 4 Human Rights Race Team would like to thank all their sponsors: Staden Grange Country House (www.stadengrangehotel.co.uk), Miracle Drywash (www.miracledrywash.com), G&G Vitamins (www.GandGvitamins.com), Wealden Workwear (www.wwpe.co.uk), and Luxury Sign Design (www.lsdsign.co.uk) for their support for the Winter Championship. The team can offer up to 120 million impressions per year – so if interested in being an advertiser e-mail the team’s sport agent on sports@allycea.com.
THE final two championship rounds will take place at Croft racing circuit in Yorkshire on 10th November. Both, the team and last year’s champ, Niki Lanik, are planning to win the championship again. To find out more about the Youth 4 Human Rights Race Team or their current top driver, Niki Lanik, log onto www.Y4HR.com and www.NikiLanik.com, or e-mail the team directly on y4hr@vibrant.ms.
