BTCC 2010-Knockhill

[Rob]

MacDowall's shock at the Knock
Alex MacDowall caused an upset with pole position ahead of the favourite, Gordon Shedden, for Knockhill’s Dunlop British Touring Car Championship round.

Cumbrian teenager MacDowall achieved pole with a best lap of 53.001s in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze – a new BTCC qualifying record around the spectacular Fife circuit.

But the 19-year-old from Carlisle urged caution, saying: “To beat Gordon on his home circuit is pretty special but I’m wary it’s only half the battle won. I was on pole at Snetterton and my gear lever broke ten yards after the start. Hopefully there’ll be none of that tomorrow…”

Scottish ace Shedden, who’d been fastest in the two earlier practice sessions, tried responding but had to make do with 53.073s and second place on tomorrow’s race one starting grid.

The Dalgety Bay racer’s attempts to better MacDowall’s time near the end were wrecked when his Honda Racing Team Honda Civic tripped over debutant Jeff Smith's Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra that was rejoining the circuit after a spin.

Shedden said: “I had to take evasive accident and took off part of my car against a barrier but, although it’s very frustrating, second still means the front row of the grid. I’m going all out for wins tomorrow in front of my home crowd.”

Shedden, fourth in the standings, is at least the best placed of the title protagonists, although qualifying right behind him in third and fourth were his Honda team-mate Matt Neal, currently third in the table, and Silverline Chevrolet’s Jason Plato, the series leader. Plato impressively set his time despite his car carrying the maximum 45kgs of success ballast.

Airwaves BMW driver Steven Kane put on a late burst to leap to a best-ever fifth ahead of Paul O’Neill in his Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed Motorsport Honda Integra. O’Neill was just one thousandth of a second clear of seventh-fastest Tom Chilton who was followed by Team Aon Ford team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole, currently second in the standings. So close were times that the top 13 drivers were covered by less than a second.

Ninth was WSR BMW driver Robert Collard who felt he would have been several places further up the grid had his best lap not been disallowed as he set it just as the red flags were shown. Ironically, this was to allow marshals to recover team-mate Andy Neate's car that had crashed at Duffus Dip half-way through the session.

Neate later admitted: "I hadn't got enough heat into the tyres, locked the left front and that was it - I was heading straight for the wall and thought it might hurt but although it was a heavy hit the damage is light. Thank goodness for foam barriers!"

A spirited tenth, despite suffering badly from a suspected bout of food poisoning, was Andrew Jordan in his Pirtek Racing Vauxhall Vectra.

Meanwhile, fellow Vectra driver David Pinkney - who, like Jordan, also uses BTCC organiser TOCA's NGTC turbo engine - felt his 13th position represented his Pinkney Motorsport team's best qualifying performance of the season so far.

Tom Boardman, using the NGTC motor for the first time in his Special Tuning UK SEAT Leon, was 15th, just ahead of Smith who ended his first BTCC qualifying session in 16th.

Completing the runners in 18th was Shaun Hollamby in his AmD Milltek Racing.com VW Golf - notably, for the first time this season, within two seconds of the pole time, this a clear indication of the on-going progress being made with car, the only one of its kind in the BTCC.

[Rob]

Chilton surprised by Plato pace
Tom Chilton has expressed surprise at Jason Plato’s pace in qualifying in a heavily-ballasted Chevrolet Cruze during Knockhill’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship qualifying session.

Plato, with the maximum 45kg of success ballast aboard his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze, qualified fourth fastest whereas Chilton, a double-winner at Silverstone two weeks ago, was back in seventh in his Team Aon Ford Focus that is carrying just 9kgs.

Indeed, neither Aon Focus was quite able to match the ultimate pace during qualifying – Tom Onslow-Cole was one place further back in eighth having lost valuable track time during earlier free practice with a rear suspension problem on his car.

Chilton, fifth in the standings and needing to make up 44 points on series leader Plato, said: “Qualifying really hasn't gone as well as planned, but that is partly because everyone is so close, I'm seventh but under two-tenths of a second from pole! Everyone else has done a really good job and that's why we are all so close, although I'm a little surprised to see Jason so fast seeing as he has maximum success ballast on the car and he's done that sort of time. Imagine if he had no weight in!”

Onslow-Cole, currently the Aon squad’s best-placed driver in the standings in second, gave a better indicator of how the Focus matches up to the Cruze around Knockhill’s tight and twisty confines. His car was carrying 36kgs of ballast – 9kgs less than Plato – but he was still 0.236s slower than the Chevrolet driver.

The New Malden driver commented: “That's all we had today. There are no excuses – that is as fast as we could go. I didn't do as many laps as I would have liked in practice this morning and I just feel that we aren't quite there with the set-up.

“Perhaps we need to try something more radical for tomorrow to enable us to get up there with the front-runners. It is going to be a long night with the engineers!”

Team principal Mike Earle is hoping his drivers’ efforts at Silverstone – where they won all three races to emerge as genuine title threats – are not suddenly undone by them becoming involved in any unnecessary incidents which is always a risk at Knockhill having qualified off the first few rows of the grid.

He said: “We are slightly disappointed with seventh and eighth in qualifying, but tomorrow is another day. Sunday's three races are going to be a very important for the championship and I remain confident that we will be able to score some strong finishes. It is vital that both of our drivers stay focused, keep out of trouble and bring home as many points as possible.”

[Rob]

Pos Driver Car Time Gap
1. Alex MacDowall Chevrolet 53.001s
2. Gordon Shedden Honda 53.073s + 0.072s
3. Matt Neal Honda 53.099s + 0.098s
4. Jason Plato Chevrolet 53.120s + 0.119s
5. Steven Kane BMW 53.160s + 0.159s
6. Paul O'Neill Honda 53.172s + 0.171s
7. Tom Chilton Ford 53.173s + 0.172s
8. Tom Onslow-Cole Ford 53.357s + 0.356s
9. Rob Collard BMW 53.383s + 0.382s
10. Andrew Jordan Vauxhall 53.458s + 0.457s
11. James Nash Vauxhall 53.685s + 0.684s
12. Mat Jackson BMW 53.700s + 0.699s
13. David Pinkney Vauxhall 53.920s + 0.919s
14. John George Honda 54.119s + 1.118s
15. Tom Boardman SEAT 54.191s + 1.190s
16. Jeff Smith Vauxhall 54.297s + 1.296s
17. Andy Neate BMW 54.450s + 1.449s
18. Shaun Hollamby Volkswagen 54.725s + 1.724s

[Rob]

www.btcc.net

[Greig]

Can wait to go tomorrow, should be a good day

[Rob]

have great day mate. Lots of action.

[Greig]

Just back, had a great day and race 3 was just awesome

[Greig]

Some pics

[Ant Raikkonen]

i wish my VW golf was like the one in the 2nd pic down

[Rob]

great shots Greig, race 3 was loads of action. Im hoping to go to Brands Hatch for end of season, hopefully.

[Rob]

KNOCKHILL RE-CAP
Gordon Shedden, Matt Neal and Jason Plato shared the wins in today’s highly-unpredictable three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the spectacular Knockhill circuit in Fife.

Plato’s victory in the third in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze means he has stretched his championship lead over Neal as the UK’s favourite motor racing series now heads south for its penultimate three races of 2010 at the Donington Park circuit in Leicestershire on Sunday 19 September.

Honda Racing Team driver Shedden’s victory on his home track in race one was just what the crowd wanted, but he was lucky to survive two sideways moments on the opening lap as (pictured above) Plato’s young team-mate Alex MacDowall, who’d started from pole position, attacked him before settling for a best-ever second position. Third was Airwaves BMW’s Steven Kane.

It was Neal’s turn to taste the victory champagne in race two as he overtook the sister Civic of Shedden on the opening lap to lead his Scottish team-mate across the line for a Honda 1-2 ahead of Plato who took third after a robust move on Kane in the closing laps.

Plato then took the spoils in race three after eventually figuring a way past Tom Onslow-Cole’s Team Aon Ford Focus which, having led from the reversed grid pole position, took second spot ahead of a fast-closing Neal in third. Notably, behind, both Shedden and another of the chief title protagonists, Aon’s Tom Chilton, suffered spins and could only come home in ninth and tenth positions.

As a result, Plato leaves Scotland with an increased 20-point advantage over Neal who has moved five points clear of third-placed Onslow-Cole. Shedden is a further nine points behind with Chilton a distant fifth, another 26 adrift with a maximum of 104 still available from Donington and Brands Hatch’s (10 October) final six races.

Oxford-based Plato, the 2001 Champion, said: “We’ve been there or thereabouts today but it’s been thirsty work and to grab a win in the final race of the day is a big bonus for our championship. Donington should suit our car better than here but I’m not counting my chickens… I’ve lost this thing far more times than I’ve won it.”

Worcestershire’s Neal, Champion in 2005 and 2006, commented: “I’ve taken the biggest points score of anyone here today and it was important to capitalise on what we knew would be a great circuit for the Civic. Gordon had a rough time in race three but I wouldn't rule him out at all either. I get the feeling, though, it’ll be the turn of the Fords at Donington – their LPG-turbo engines might have the beating of us on the long straights and the uphill sections there.”

New Malden racer Onslow-Cole, still only 23 and who now finds himself embroiled in a title battle against two giants of the series in Plato and Neal, added: “It’s been a very tough weekend – I was playing catch-up after some issues in free practice yesterday and then I woke up ill this morning! But still we’ve picked up a healthy dose of points. I hope what Matt says comes true and it swings back our way at Donington!”

Meanwhile, Shedden’s and Neal’s results at Knockhill have taken Honda/Dynamics past Arena/Ford to the head of the Manufacturers/Constructors standings by the slender margin of just two points. The Honda Racing Team, though, has significantly increased its HiQ Teams Championship lead over Team Aon from four to 31 points. Onslow-Cole has now egded 22 points clear of Kane at the top of the Independent Drivers’ table and Team Aon is also edging nearer the Independent Teams’ title, its lead over Airwaves BMW having gone out from 16 to 21 points.

Elsewhere, four drivers were punished for on-track incidents at Knockhill. These included: Race 1: Mat Jackson – fined £250 & 3 penalty points (for an incident with James Nash); Race 2: Tom Chilton & Jason Plato – each officially reprimanded & 3 penalty points (both for incidents with Steven Kane); Race 3: Jeff Smith – officially reprimanded, fined £250 & 3 penalty points (for an incident with David Pinkney).

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