Team Pyro’s Josh Files kept himself firmly in the mix for championship contention in the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup by gaining a solid fifth place finish at Norfolk's renowned Snetterton 300 circuit this afternoon (11th August).

The driver, backed as part of Direct Debit's Big Break campaign, qualified seventh on the grid earlier in the day and made a good start off the line to defend his position from Adam Bonham.

By lap three, Files came under increased pressure from Team Pyro teammate Bonham who had set the fastest final sector time of the race.

After tirelessly trying to defend his position from Bonham, Files dropped down to seventh place. A lap later a well judged move on Josh Cook moved Files up to sixth place, and he quickly started to pursue the Clio of Stefan Hodgetts at the end of lap five.

An impressive couple of laps from Files saw the gap to Hodgetts drop down to five tenths of a second, but that gap remained stationary for the remainder of the lap.

An incident further up the track on lap eight would lead to Files moving up to fifth place, which he held to the end of the race boosting his position in the championship standings.    

“It was a tough race," explained Files. "It was all kicking off, the car had no pace if I am honest, we really shouldn’t have come where we did, that was just luck,” 

“We have got to get some pace in the car tomorrow, it’s just too understeery at the moment, I drove the car to the best of my ability and that paid off in the end so I am happy about that.” 

“It was all kicking off at the front of the field at the end, everyone was all over the place so I was just looking to keep my nose clean.”

“The car will be changed for tomorrow and I am sure that will help us to get a better result.”     

Round ten of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup will commence tomorrow (11th August), at 13:45, and will be aired live on ITV4 and ITV4 HD.