The Circuit
The Knockhill circuit is unique in the UK in terms of its beautiful setting and awesome twists and dips, the only other circuit that comes close in terms of the dramatic driving experience is Cadwell park with Mountain and woodlands section. The other key feature of Knockhill is the weather, which as usual bought some extra excitement to the racing.
Practice and Qualifying
I raced at Knockhill in the Alfa Championship with some success and so I was looking forward racing on the circuit in a BTC car. The free practice sessions went fairly well and I was quickly up to speed. We worked hard on the set-up which is made difficult at Knockhill by the demands of the kerbs which have to be used to get a good lap time. For qualifying the organisers decided to split the Production Class and the Super Tourers into separate sessions. I think it was a good decision as the overtaking opportunities are limited and I think it would have been extremely difficult for both classes to get a clear lap had we been together. Qualifying was still tough though. Because the sessions were split there would be no time concession for red flags and so it was very important to bank an early time. I went straight out on my qualifying tyres and concentrated on trying to be smooth and tidy. At some circuits the smooth and tidy approach works but at Knockhill it was just not delivering the lap times. My qualifying position for the sprint race wasn't very good and half way through the second qualifying session for the feature race I was still off the pace as I came in for a change of tyres. We put the tyres from the first session back on and I went out for the last five minutes to try and salvage the situation. I pushed very hard immediately, straightening the corners as much as possible and using all the kerbs and more in places. The car felt like it was all over the place, in fact it felt ragged and not quick but the stop watch made it my quickest few laps of the session and around half a second off the time set by Gavin Pyper.
Sprint Race
Having established a good dry set-up I was looking forward to race day, however, when Sunday came the skies looked ominously grey. We formed up on the grid for the sprint race and the rain started to fall very gently. There followed the debate on changing the tyres to wets and gradually the entire grid changed over. It was a wise decision as the rain fell steadily through the race and pretty much for the rest of the day.
The start of the sprint race was a nightmare. From my grid position I couldn't see the starting lights and I was about to radio my pit crew to ask them to shout go when the lights went green, and then the rest of the field drove off! As a result my start was appalling, leaving me a lot of work to do. The dry set-up wasn't working in the wet and the car was incredible twitchy at the rear end. I gradually improved my lap times and started to over take a few of my competitors. I caught up with Alan my team mate but despite being quite a bit slower than me he was determined not to let me past. This slowed us both down and so by the last lap we had been caught by Mark Thomas and a recovering Tom Boardman. At the final corner of the race, the hairpin, Mark Thomas left his braking too late and smashed into the back of my car. Luckily I stayed on the track but both Mark and Tom beat me to the finish.
Feature Race
We changed the set-up for the feature race as the wet weather had settled in for the rest of the day, this involved a change of springs so was not a quick job but the end result was a much better handling car. By now the rain was quite heavy and the visibility was appalling. As we came around for the rolling start Gavin Pyper, the Production Pole sitter held back from the pack of Super Tourers, a wise move as the spray thrown up by the Tourers is incredible - its similar to sitting in a car wash! The lights changed to green and the field blasted up the main straight into a dense cloud of spray. At this point my brain was saying 'you really ought to back off here as you can't see a thing' - but that isn't going to win a race so I just kept my right foot hard on the throttle. I held my 5th position from the start and pulled away from the rest of the field with the lead group. The conditions were probably the worst I have ever raced in. The visibility on the start finish straight was so bad that I was looking at the pit wall to judge where the track went. I waited for the pit exit and then a bump just after it to determine my braking point, and then the entry to Duffers dip would appear through the mist. I caught James Kaye and managed to get past into 4th place and pulled out a small gap. I was hoping that some of the leaders would make mistakes as so often happens in the feature race, unfortunately despite the awful conditions everyone stayed on the track and so a podium position eluded me. I was having a good dice with James when Andy Prilaux who was leading the race came through to lap me. He chose McIntyres, the tight right hander after Duffers dip to make his move and ran wide on the exit onto the slippery kerb stones. I couldn't afford to lift as Kaye was just a short distance behind me and so I kept the throttle planted and re-took Andy who was then stuck behind me for the following handful of corners. A couple of laps later I made a mistake through Glenvarigill, running wide on the exit allowing James Kaye to come along side me on the following straight. We ran side by side into Clark but I ended up on the slipper y kerb and lost the position. With the lead pack all making it to the finish I was in fifth position, but I was pleased with how I had raced in the difficult conditions.
Conclusion
I was pleased with how the weekend had gone as a whole. We had worked hard on the Saturday to get a good set-up for the dry and qualiyfing 5th for the feature race just half a second off Gavin at his home track was good. I also thought I had raced well in the difficult conditions, although the race results (9th and 5th) didn't really relfect that.