Didcot racing champion Ian Pearson rediscovered his winning touch by claiming Club Class category victory in rounds five and six of the Formula Renault BARC Championship at Snetterton on Sunday.

After disappointing outings in rounds three and four at a rain-soaked Croft circuit, Pearson reasserted his authority in the championship to open a 16-point advantage over Mark Terry.

On a day that saw a record entry of 29 in the Formula Renault BARC Championship, nine of them in the Club Class, a packed schedule saw qualifying and both races held in the space of just a few hours.

The 26-year-old, now in his fifth full season in the low-cost single-seater championship, qualified his 1998 Tatuus RC98 Renault in 14th overall, ahead of seven 2000-specification cars.

The start of round five was marred by two red flag incidents when Club Class driver James Heffernan and FR2000 Class man Pierre Renom went off at the first corner, Riches, in separate incidents.

At the restart, Pearson made a slow start allowing Terry to close up behind the category leader. But Terry was passed by FR2000 Class cars Denis Autier and Chris Murray and although he held on to second place in the class, he could not threaten Pearsons victory as the Didcot man finished five seconds ahead, with Andrew Webb in third place.

Pearson, who won 11 of the 12 races in 2005 on his way to the title, added one bonus point each for claiming pole position and the fastest lap to take 17 points from the race. He then repeated the trick in round six, to take a maximum 34-points from the weekend.

Round six followed a similar pattern to the days earlier race with two red flag incidents on the opening laps. The first saw Steve Hanselman slide off at Riches corner and a second red flag came out after Felix Fisher crashed heavily into the tyre wall at more than 120mph at the start of lap four.

After repairs to the safety barrier, a six-lap race was held half the originally scheduled distance with Pearson starting from 13th on the grid. Once again, Terry closed the gap to just a handful of seconds but found the FR2000 Class car of Ben Mason preventing him from attacking Pearson directly.

As Pearson and Terry completed their second one-two of the day, James Heffernan and Andrew Webb diced for the final podium place, swapping positions several times before Heffernan got his nose in front on the final lap to clinch third by just 0.196s.

Pearson said: "Croft was very disappointing for me and it was great to get back on the top step of the podium. The amount of restarts made it tricky to get a good rhythm going but Im still setting quick times so I'm very happy.

"Mark was a lot closer to me this weekend than he was when we came here in April and its made me raise my game. It's good to have close competition and hopefully it will bring out the best in me."

The championship takes a five-week break before returning for round seven at Oulton Park, Cheshire on Saturday, August 5.