Unfortunately 2016 was a false start and the funding that we had being promised was not delivered. On reflection, it was the best thing that could of happened to me, it brought the paths of Daniel Rowbottom and Cataclean together and the rest as they say, is history.
2017 saw my first full season of motorsport since 2008 running in UK Clio Cup as a privateer, just myself, my father, mother and wife and a stream of enthusiastic helpers, for which I will always be grateful! The season started well, showing great pace and finally picking up 9 podiums across the season as well as numerous fastest laps taking us to P5 in the final standings, it wasn’t a bad go for a family team on what was still a tight budget!
2018 – UK Clio Cup, with one thing in mind, the championship win. We ultimately got cheated here a little bit, due to a lack of judgement on my part, I insisted on joining a ‘main stream’ team for the season as I didn’t have the confidence of running as a privateer for the championship title, as a result of a commercial disagreements we ended up missed a weekend points haul at Oulton Park – round 4 of the championship. Thankfully my title partners, Cataclean, took the decision to continue – back as privateers.
We hastily set about buying a brand new car which I collected from France the day before the Croft event, we set to work on chasing the championship, winning more races than any other driver in the second half of the season, set a lap record and gained 8 more podiums entering the last round with an outside shot, of the championship title… I put the car on pole and won the first race, but the points difference was too strong and with 2nd place in the final race of the year we ended our second Clio Cup UK campaign in 4th overall.
However, UK Clio Cup had done its job, it gave me the shop window to put myself forward for a BTCC seat, and thats exactly what I did next!
