SHIPLEY'S Luke Pinder has taken a massive step towards winning the Michelin Clio Cup Road Series.

The championship leader not only won both rounds at Oulton Park but also set a new lap record at the Cheshire venue's Island Circuit configuration.

That all translated to a 29-point lead on gross scores with two races remaining, but his advantage extends to 45 points as he can drop his lowest score of the series.

Qualifying second on the grid for both Oulton races, Pinder aced each start to get ahead of Jade Developments team-mate Jake Honour (Devizes), and he was never headed in either contest.

Race one was certainly the most challenging, with Pinder having to battle a lack of power steering from lap two to the finish on lap 12.

Even so, he managed to head runner-up Honour by 1.2 seconds.

In race two, Pinder took the chequered flag by almost seven seconds, and his fastest lap of 1min 45.995sec (75.60mph), as well as gaining two bonus points, marked a new lap record.

An elated Pinder said: "The wins were certainly needed – we've had a few ups and downs recently so it's great to get back where we should be.

"It was really close with Jake in race one. Just after the first lap though I lost the power steering on the car, which made things very interesting.

"I wasn't sure I was going to finish. It's much easier (to win) with power steering, I can say that much!"

Next stop for the Michelin Clio Cup Road Series will be the season's finale on September 19-20 at Silverstone International Circuit.

Provisional 2015 Michelin Clio Cup Road Series driver standings (after round 11, minus drop scores): 1 Luke Pinder, 295pts; 2 Tyler Lidsey, 250s; 3 Nic Harrison, 245; 4 Jake Honour, 241; 5 Sarah Franklin, 196; 6 John Creasey, 177.