Daire Flock in action during the 7th round of the Clio Cup Series 2025, at the Valencia Circuit Ricardo Tormo, in Valencia, Spain. Photo by Marc de Mattia / DPPI
Daire is happy with his progress
THE 7th round of the European Clio Cup Series was held at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo track in Valencia, Spain.
With the introduction of a new car after the previous crash at Imola, the objective for the weekend was to dial the car to his style of driving, learn a new track and get on the pace for qualifying.
Practice on Friday gave Daire the opportunity to set up the car, learn the track and feel confident for Saturdays and Sundays qualifying.
Saturday qualifying for race 1 was difficult due to a short window to qualify when the tyres were at their best, and finding space was difficult with just 20 minutes to set a time.
The sessions finished with a grid position on 20th with the first 24 cars on the grid covered by 0.7 second.
Race 1 saw Daire get off to a good start and leapfrogged five positions by the first corner.
Flock continued to push hard over the proceeding laps until a late move from a competitor locked up and hit Daire.
This sent Daire into a spin, and he was hit a further three times by fellow competitors, forcing Daire to retire from the race.
Sunday started early with qualifying.
After repairing the damage to the car from the previous race, Daire managed to qualify in 22 positions.
As always the competition was extremely competitive with the field being covered by less than 1 second across 25 cars.
Another good start got Daire into the mix, fighting with established drivers in the championship to cross the line in 17th.
Daire said after the race, “It was an up-and-down weekend with highs and lows.
‘Overall, I’m happy with my progress, and a massive thank you to Westbourne Motorsport working through the night to fix my car for Sunday.
‘I would also like to thank my sponsors, Gorilla Design, Glanhaze Distribution, Rygor Autos, ES Design & Engineering and family and friends for giving me this opportunity to race in Europe.
‘We now look forward to Paul Ricard in France to push for top 3 in the Juniors.
