The championship’s opening two rounds at Snetterton last weekend (9-10 Sept) proved ultra-competitive with the top four finishers in the first race separated by less than a second.

Less than a second also covered the grid in qualifying – particularly impressive given the lengthy nature of the Snetterton 300 circuit configuration being used…

Fewkes commented: “Two different drivers – one of them on his car racing debut – representing two different teams winning, all four teams registered so far sharing in the six podium places available on the day, a pair of very exciting races with the lead changing hands plenty of times and a tie for the championship lead…

“What an absolutely fantastic way for Clio Cup Junior to get under way. After a lot of effort behind the scenes to bring the category to fruition there are a lot of big smiles on the faces of the Renault Sport UK team.”

After Snetterton’s opening encounters, Team Pyro’s Max Marzorati (Harrow) and WDE Motorsport’s Connor Grady (Smallfield) are the joint championship leaders as UK Clio Cup Jnr next heads to Brands Hatch (Sat 23/Sun 24 Sept). In fact just six points over the five in the standings with a possible maximum of 204 still to be had from the remaining six races…

Fewkes added: “Given the very tight nature of the Brands Hatch Indy circuit I predict the competition there will be even closer than we saw at Snetterton.

“Certainly the quality is there straight away in terms of both teams and drivers and quality is what our championships have always been about – just look at who’s come out of them.

“We’ve had a really positive response following the weekend from interested parties looking to join the grid as more people realise that Clio Cup Junior is setting new standards in junior car racing in the UK.

“I am confident we will see the grid size increase before our current four events end in November and I am already looking forward to 2018.”