TALENTED young racing driver Luke Wright put an early season run of bad luck behind him at the Croft circuit when he scored his maiden podium position of the season.

After a masterful drive in round 10 of the 2011 Air Asia Renault Clio Cup, the Shaftesbury driver took a highly-deserved second place at the North Yorkshire venue.

Fresh from a rather disappointing performance at Oulton Park two weeks ago, Wright was immediately back on the pace during Saturday’s qualifying session and quickly mastered the tricky damp conditions to record starting spots of second and third for the weekend’s two 12-lap races.

A mistake by the 18-year-old early in the first race resulted in the former kart racer suffering a trip into the tyre wall at Croft’s notoriously tricky chicane and consequently a long evening of work by the Scuderia Vittoria team to repair the damage to his Renault Clio.

However, all the hard work by the team was rewarded on Sunday when Wright produced by far his best drive of the season.

Starting from third on the grid, Wright dropped a place into the first corner but then produced two stunning overtaking manoeuvres to move up into second place behind his highly experienced team-mate Matt Allison.

The Dometic Group sponsored driver then resisted massive pressure from behind for the last third of the race utilising all of his race-craft learned through his highly successful kart racing career.

Wright’s clinical move on rival James Colburn around the outside of the circuit’s ultra tight hairpin bend on lap three was by all accounts one of the most impressive passing manoeuvres of the whole race meeting, with Colburn commenting to the TV cameras post race: “Fair play to Luke that was just a great move to pass me there.”

Wright himself was glad to have finally backed up the strong pace he has shown so far this season with a podium finish and said: “I think that result was long overdue really and I think for me to finally deliver a result for the team and all my sponsors is especially pleasing.”

The Dorset driver went on to explain that he has been recovering from an illness picked up last month.

He said: “I have been suffering from the after effects of shingles for the last few weeks and coupled with my accident at Thruxton, I think I was just trying too hard at Oulton Park and maybe over driving the car a little.

“Hopefully now with this result under my belt I can push on for the second half of the season.”

With Wright’s Scuderia Vittoria team claiming both race wins at Croft courtesy of Matt Allison, the second half of the season looks extremely promising for Wright who will surely benefit from the knowledge and success the team have gleaned from the first races of the year.

The next rounds of the Clio Cup take place at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk on August 6-7.