Newly-crowned Renault UK Clio Cup Champion, Josh Files, battled to a solid fifth place finish in an incident-ridden final race of 2013 on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit (13 October).
Sponsored by Bacs Payment Schemes Ltd (Bacs) in 2011 and 2012 , Josh saw his long term sponsor joined by another for 2013 as VocaLink – which supplies the infrastructure behind Direct Debit in the UK on behalf of Bacs – take on sole support for the first half of the season, before Bacs took over once more for the final eight races, including this weekend’s triumphant display at Brands Hatch.
The Norwich-domiciled racer sealed the 2013 UK Clio Cup title with a fourth-place finish in Round 19 on Saturday (12 October), as chief rival Paul Rivett watched from the sidelines having injured his Achilles tendon.
Files set the pace in Friday practice and duly secured a front-row grid slot for Round 20 – the final race of the year – on the world-renowned Brands GP circuit in Kent and, with the championship already wrapped up, had nothing to lose by going all-out for victory.
Despite a relatively sluggish start, Files emerged from the first corner still in second place, although a collision with pole-sitter James Colburn as the pack concertinaed at Graham Hill Bend caused a loss of momentum and backed him into the pack.
Now in fourth, the Bacs-supported racer lost touch with the leading trio of Josh Cook, Mike Bushell and Stefan Hodgetts.
Three Safety Car interventions bunched up the field at various intervals during the truncated 14-lap race and Files had his work cut out to see off a trio of hard-chargers behind him.
A tight four-way tussle involving Files, Alex Morgan, Jake Giddings and Ash Hand broke out after the second Safety Car period and Files did well to only lose one further place to Team Pyro stable-mate Morgan and complete the race in fifth position.
“I have to say, that was a very feisty race,” said Files. “It was a bit stupid actually. I got the biggest clout at Graham Hill Bend on the opening lap and that sent both me and James Colburn off. I managed to get through that, but everyone seemed to have an end of term ‘let’s just smash it up’ attitude. Still, I finished the race and it was really treacherous out there. It was really hard work, but Team Pyro and I have done a really good job, capping off the year perfectly. Nothing could take away from the mega year we’ve had.”
For more information on Josh Files' racing activities, please visit the official www.joshfiles.co.uk website, 'like' his Facebook page or follow @JoshFiles on Twitter.