BMN Racing entered rounds five and six of the TORA Renault Clio Cup looking for an upturn in fortunes. The pace of drivers jgroves1996 and Uniform16 had been good at Silverstone and Iberian, but luck was distinctly lacking. Uniform16 would miss the Tsukuba event due to working commitments, so jgroves1996 would be joined by another brother, mjg36, making his Clio Cup debut.

The entry for Round 5 and 6 was double the entry from Iberian, a testament to the hard work of the organisers and the fantastic racing seen thus far. More entrants meant a second lobby being run, and the risk of ending up in Lobby B if the pace wasn't quite there. This became a reality for a number of drivers high up in the championship, including both BMN drivers, qualifying 4th and 5th for race one Lobby B.

Mjg36's race one was largely shaped by the first lap. Having made a bad start, he managed to fend off StanStill to maintain his fifth place exiting turn one, before swiftly turning defence into attack by lunging past jgroves1996 into the second hairpin. Despite an attack by his brother two laps later, he was able to maintain position and sit in a watching brief behind BG Chucky 82 and Slider S15 in their battle for 2nd, ready to pick up the pieces of an incident which never materialised, fourth being a solid finish on his debut.

Jgroves1996 was unfortunate to suffer damage five laps in after a slightly over-exuberant move from JamesHall94 into turn one, and dropped down through the field as a result, eventually finishing 8th. His single-lap pace was good enough to run with mjg36 in front of the group he spent the race squabbling with, but the damage was too much to overcome, and he'd be looking for revenge in race two.

In race two, mjg36 slotted in behind the leaders in 4th, and when BG Chucky finally deposed Slider for second, he was looking for a way past. Taking advantage of his lack of concentration, Bandit launched a sneak attack at mid-distance, which he was lucky to fend off, and began to hunt down Slider again. With three to go, he was back within half a second, and when Slider locked up into the bottom hairpin, mjg suddenly had a sniff of a podium. It smelt good, and he launched an attack into the hairpin that Slider rebuffed, but having spent all of race one and most of race two watching him, mjg set up a lovely move into the final corner onto the final lap, and try as Slider may, he couldn't find a way back past. 3rd place.

For jgroves race two was less frustrating than race one. A good start saw him positioned well through turn one, only for JamesHall and StanStill to make contact, forcing him to back out and drop positions. He quickly regained them and set off in pursuit of StanStill in 6th, but try as he may he couldn't get close enough, until the final lap when Stan ran wide through the final corner, setting up a drag race to the line that Stan won, leaving jgroves seventh.

Of some comforth to team manager jgroves1996 is that leaving Rounds 5 and 6 BMN Racing sit second in the teams standings, whilst he finds himself 6th in the drivers standings with Uniform16 8th. For Rounds 7 and 8, Uniform16 will be back making a three-pronged attack at Hockenheim, and the hope is that on a more familiar track, BMN Racing will be back at the pointy end of the action.