MELKSHAM’S Jake Honour made the perfect start to the new Michelin Clio Cup Road Series as he clinched two wins at last weekend’s opening rounds at Rockingham.

Honour, 22, who now lives in Rowde, qualified in pole position for both races and in Sunday morning’s first round, never looked under threat as he built a cushion of 2.5 seconds at the Northamptonshire circuit.

Light mid-race rainfall threw up some problems for Honour in the second round but his second victory built an eight-point lead in the standings.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a better weekend – two race wins and two pole positions”, said Honour, who is assisted by Jade Developments.

“It wasn’t easy. The safety car came out in the first race and there were a lot of collisions, which we had to avoid.

“Race two started dry but then it began to rain, I lost a lot of grip and Anton (Spires) was chasing me really hard – I had to really drive to keep him back.”

Honour is competing in his second season in the Clio Cup Series after converting his road-going Renault into his new race car last year.

Rounds three and four take place at Oulton Park, Cheshire, on May 17.

Trowbridge driver Dan Blake made an impressive racing debut at Rockingham taking home two Rookie Cup victories in the Carbon 8 & Activa Consultants Hyundai Coupe Cup.

Blake, 26, was 13th of 34 in qualifying, good enough to put him in fifth place in the Coupe Cup class out of 11.

He finished 21st in the opening race, ahead of fellow newcomer Matthew Plumb by just 0.591 seconds, to take ninth in class and the Rookie Cup before improving by a place in the second race, knocking 1.3 seconds off of his lap time, again enough for Rookie Cup success.

Blake said: “I need to say a big thank you to (fellow competitor) Simon Miles who let us borrow a tow vehicle after the engine on ours blew. We were very close to not even making it to Rockingham.’’

The next two rounds of the Hyundai Coupe Cup, see the championship visit Blake's home circuit of Castle Combe on Monday, May 5, as part of Castle Combe’s Bank Holiday Monday race meeting.

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