Racing driver heads into final of AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK

He produced a solid display in rounds 13 and 14 at Rockingham in Northamptonshire earlier this month to finish on 294 points and set up and exciting finale.

Heading into Rockingham, he was 13-points adrift of the championship leader, but the 18-year-old brilliantly qualified third and second for rounds 13 and 14 respectively – and claimed one podium finish.

Colburn said: “We had a good qualifying session and qualified ahead of my championship rivals which is very important around here.”

Unfortunately, Colburn couldn’t turn his start into a podium on the first race of the weekend.

He was comfortably third before an incident brought out the safety car and following the restart, Colburn had a good run on the driver in front, who subsequently hit the curb and was sent airborne, making Colburn abandon any possible overtaking manoeuvre.

As a result, the drivers behind Colburn managed to get a good run on him and he was passed and put into fifth place - where he would later finish.

24 hours later in round 14, James managed to turn his position into a third-place podium.

After initially dropping back to fourth Colburn made a bold overtake into the second corner and managed to out-brake his competitor for the position but he ran out of laps trying to make any improvement to his race position – although did set the fastest lap, giving him some more vital points in his bid to win the Championship.

The Clio Cup’s final two rounds this weekend will be live on ITV4, and Colburn said: “Qualifying is going to be so important, but we have shown we have got good pace and if we manage to put it on pole, we’re going to be very happy as everyone will be looking to get the most out of the cars”