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Northern Ireland’s Andrew Herron recorded his maiden SEAT Cupra Championship podium finish at Donington Park in Leicestershire yesterday, Sunday, 4th May, to truly kick-start his 2008 campaign.
The 19-year-old Brian Herron Contracts backed ace, who only has one season of saloon car race experience under his belt, fought well to achieve a terrific third place finish during round six – the result only going to validate the pace he has shown throughout official testing.
Coupled with a fourth place finish in the earlier fifth round yesterday, where he missed out on climbing the rostrum by just 1.5 seconds, Andrew has risen to seventh place overall in the championship standings with 49 points.
Lining up third on the grid for the first of the weekend’s races, Andrew consolidated his position well and by lap four he was within just four 10ths of a second of Carl Breeze.
As round five entered its final third, the Dromore-based racer continued to press Breeze but he also came under pressure himself from 2007 ELF Renault Clio Cup Champion Martin Byford. Running nose-to-tail into the penultimate lap, Andrew defended the inside line into Redgate
But Byford, with more grip at his disposal, managed to cut back from the outside on the exit of the turn and make the pass for third on the run through Hollywood. Forced to settle for fourth position, Andrew was disappointed but nonetheless pleased to record a highly creditable result.
Starting from second on the grid for round six, Andrew slipped behind Breeze into Redgate for the fist time and on the opening lap came under some pressure from the reigning SEAT Cupra Champion Jonathan Adam.
Andrew soon found his rhythm though, lapping quickly and consistently to close to within three 10ths of a second of Breeze into lap four. Into Goddards at the end of the lap, he then produced an outstanding piece of late-braking and overtaking to seize second place.
Immediately beginning to pull away from his rival, the JHR Developments racer opened up a 1.5 second gap inside two laps but as the race entered its closing stages, Andrew started to come under attack once again as he began to lose grip.
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