Clio Cup
Besides being Toto’s favorite race series 2024 should be a fantastic year with a lot of competition.
This week at Nogaro, the Clio Cup Series launches the 2024 season with all the leading names in the discipline in attendance and a host of ambitious competitors who have come to challenge them. With a full grid for the Circuit Paul Armagnac kick-off and more than 70 drivers already entered for the year, the Clio Cup confirms its status as an key category in the international motorsport landscape.
Since its creation in 1991, the Clio Cup has spearheaded single-brand racing and enters a new era this year under the impetus of Groupe Signature. Drawing on its expertise in customer racing for Renault and Alpine, the new Clio Cup Series promoter is working closely with Alpine Racing to develop talent and continue to offer unique opportunities and synergies at this level of the pyramid.
New look, new regulations.
The first of the 2024 season’s innovations is visual. While the fifth-generation Clio Cup remains at the heart of the action, it now adopts its road counterpart’s new, more assertive, and elegant styling. This is reflected in a front end that combines technical sophistication with dynamism, a completely redesigned light signature, and taut, precise, and effective lines that give the car a more distinctive character.
The other changes involve the sporting side, with a tighter programme of nine meetings and eighteen encounters on prestigious and renowned European circuits. While the discipline retains its unique format with four regional groups (España, France, Italia, and Mid-Europe) with complementary calendars, they now all consist of five meetings for ten races. Mistakes will no longer be forgiven, with all results now counting towards the final general classification!
From 2024, the internal classes and their points system also match the Alpine Cup Series. Competitors can now compete in three distinct categories: Juniors (born in 2002 and after), Gentlemen (born in 1979 and before) and Challengers (born after 1979 and before 2002), subject to their track records.
Triple kick-off at Nogaro
The Clio Cup Series, Clio Cup France, and Clio Cup España kick off their season at Nogaro in what is now a longstanding tradition. 2023 Clio Cup Series super-winner as well as Clio Cup Europe and Clio Cup France reigning titleholder, David Pouget (GPA Racing) is putting his crownson the line. Over the nine rounds of the Clio Cup Series, the Albi native will cross again swords with Nicolas Milan (Milan Compétition), who is chasing a 16th Clio title, Gabriele Torelli and Anthony Jurado, two tough rivals who are now teammates at Rangoni Corse. Following the Frenchman’s landmark transfer, the combination of the Italian, who has won the Italian and Mid-European championships the last two years, and the Montpellier native, who won the Clio Cup Europe in 2022, promises to be fascinating!
Also in the Clio Cup Series, Spanish twins Adrián and Alejandro Schimpf (AST Competition) are two Juniors looking to confirm their potential after dominating Clio Cup España. Italy’s Damiano Puccetti (Rangoni Corse) and Leonardo Arduini (MC Motortecnica) add to the contingent of hopefuls, as are several new talents, including Ireland’s Jack Byrne (GPA Racing), Serbia’s Nikola Tosic (AKSK Crvena Zvezda) and Dutchman Mauro Polderman (AST Competition). The latter will share the track with his father, Stephan Polderman (AST Competition), one of the Clio Cup’s mainstays, who will challenge Mickaël Carrée (T2CM), Rene Steenmetz (AST Competition), Michel Faye (GM Sport), Quinto Stefana (Milan Competition), Horn (GPA Racing) and Nava (MC Motortecnica) in the Gentlemen category. Many ambitious Challengers determined to add their names to the list of winners will also compete in the nine rounds of the calendar. They include Guillaume Maio (GM Sport), Nikola Miljkovic (Tempo Racing), Ludovico Longoni (MC Motortecnica) and newcomer Lorenzo van Riet (Rangoni Corse) in a grid completed by Milan Popović (Tempo Racing).
A new deal in the national groups
David Pouget will also defend his Clio Cup France title against rivals he knows well, such as Nicolas Milan and teammate Alexandre Finkelstein (GPA Racing), who rose to prominence last year to the point of winning overall at the Nürburgring. Gabriele Torelli will also be gunning for the crown as the Italian has his sights set on a third consecutive title after winning in Italy in 2022 and the Mid-Europe crown in 2023! Florian Venturi (GM Sport), who won last year’s Challengers Cup in France, will be out to conquer the Junior category, where he will face Pierre Brédeaux (Comte Racing), Thomas Compain (Milan Compétition) and newcomer Alexandre Barcet (Milan Compétition). At the same time, the race to be his successor in the Challengers category will include Aurélien Renet (JSB Compétition), Cédric Delcroix (GPA Racing), Calvin Comte (Comte Racing) and two of the Clio Cup’s leading lights in Jérémy Bordagaray (Milan Compétition) and Alexandre Albouy (GPA Racing). Among the Clio Cup France Gentlemen, Mickaël Carrée (T2CM) will be looking for the same success he enjoyed in 2017 and 2020, but he will also have to battle fiercely with 2021 class winner Laurent Dziadus (Team Lucas). The two experienced drvers will also have to contend with the likes of Samuel Chaligne (T2CM), Stéphane Nevers (GPA Racing), Michel Faye (GM Sport), Yann Navillod (GPA Racing) and Jean-Louis Carponcin (Inter Generation). Kévin Jimenez (GPA Racing), winner of the Clio Cup Europe Challengers Cup in 2021, will make his return, as will Florian Grizaud (GPA Racing) to complete the French line-up. These competitors will share the Gers track with the protagonists of Clio Cup España, where Alejandro Schimpf hopes to succeed his twin brother. The Spaniard will have to face off the challenges from Junior Damiano Puccetti and Gentlemen Rene Steenmetz, Gaël Rostand (GPA Racing) and Andrea Chierichetti (MC Motortecnica)… One thing is sure: a new name will join the group’s list of winners!
The dawn of an exceptional campaign
Although some of the Clio Cup Italia and Clio Cup Mid-Europe contenders will be in action at Nogaro, these two groups will not begin their seasons until later in the year. Anthony Jurado and Adrián Schimpf will be able to gauge themselves before the Clio Cup Italia begins at Misano in mid-May, as will Ludovico Longoni, Leonardo Arduini, Jack Byrne, Quinto Stefana and Horn. Several of their Clio Cup Mid-Europe counterparts will also participate, including Stephan Polderman, Nikola Miljkovic, Guillaume Maio, Mauro Polderman, Lorenzo Van Riet and Romain Lavocat (GM Sport). The Clio Cup community will grow over the coming rounds thanks to the many competitors who have responded favourably to the discipline’s new format. Among the drivers who have already confirmed their presence are the Stucki Motorsport trio of Andreas Stucki, Daniel Nyffeler and Udo Brunner, plus Italians Giacomo Trebbi (MC Motortecnica), Sandro Cutini (Cut Racing), Alex Lancellotti (GPA Racing) and Cristian Ricciarini (Essecorse). France’s Benjamin Cauvas and David Pajot (Vic’Team) and Norway’s Knuteirik Knudsen (TF Performance) will also be back in the paddock, as will Felix Heiberg (TF Performance), Rémi Belleville (FAS Competition), Stefani Ronnie (Essecorse)… and simracer Jaroslav Honzik (GM Sport), 2021 Alpine Esports Series winner, now ready to resume racing in the real world!
This exceptional line-up will compete throughout the season for a total prize fund of over €270,000 via an attractive bonus system. The Clio Cup Series winner will be offered a brand new Clio Cup or half a season in the Alpine Cup Series if they wish to move up the GT ladder within the pyramid set up by Alpine Racing and Groupe Signature. Some competitors were able to get their bearings a fortnight ago on the Gers track, which was resurfaced over the winter. The first two confrontations will establish an initial hierarchy between the specialists, the ambitious hopefuls and the more experienced protagonists. The 43 drivers competing at Nogaro will be on track from Friday and will race on Sunday and Monday as part of the Nogaro Easter Cup, which the Renault Clio Series Facebook page and YouTube channel will stream live.