The summer saloon spectacular rolled into Knockhill today with feature races for the Scottish Saloons & Sports Car Championship and guest races for the Northern Sports and Saloons Championship, organised by the Darlington and District Motor Club.
County Antrim racer, Ryan Magennis was the quickest driver out of the starting blocks; taking the opening race win from David Headen by a whopping 24 seconds. Fiesta ST racer, George Orr managed to secure himself a third place podium behind the wheel of his Mitsubishi Evo. Headen faired better in the 2nd Saloons and Sports Car outing, turning around the previous 24 second deficit to a 6 second winning margin over Magennis. Paul Byrdon managed to salvage a podium from his weekend to keep himself in title contention.
Every year the Northern Sports and Saloons Championship come north of the border for a guest appearance at Knockhill; bringing with them a mix of powerful cars ranging from 1600cc Citroen Saxos to 3200cc BMW M3s. In today’s opening encounter, it was Stirling based, Andrew Morrison who would show his southern counterparts the way to navigate Knockhill. Morrison would eventually seal a 2.3s victory over Mike Cutt with Myles Collins taking a outright on-the-road podium position back in third. In the second outing of the day, the three aforementioned racers would finish in the same order; however, Nothern Sports and Saloons Championship leader, Bill Addison would out pace them all sealing victory in super-fast Caterham.
Elsewhere, the BMW Compact and MX5 Cups would enjoy their own races for only the 2nd time at Knockhill this season. Regular race winner Andrew Kirkcaldy welcomed the extra competition from a number of southern racers, but still proved to strong for the rest of the field in the opening encounter. Kirkcaldy’s 100% winning record though, came to a spectacular halt in the second outing of the weekend as Greg Graham became the first man to beat him this season. There were also welcome podium scores for Bryce Greenwood, Billy Campbell and MX5 racer Paul Curtis who scored an impressive on-the-road third place finish, on his way to two class victories.
There were several other racers to double-up this weekend. Aiden Moffat continued his impressive form in the Peoples Ford Scottish Fiesta ST Championship securing two wins; whilst XR2 supremo Wayne MacCaulay rediscovered his mojo with two wins of his very own. Celtic Speed Mini Cooper Cup points leader, Joe Tanner took another brace of wins in the tighly contested Mini series. Tanner’s team-mate, David Sleigh secured a clean sweep of wins for the Edinburgh based team by taking the final race win of an action-packed SMRC schedule which saw a total of 18 races completed throughout the day.
16 year old Ciaran Haggerty finally secured his first ever Formula Ford race win; taking victory in the opening race of the weekend ahead of Jordon Gronkowski and Stuart Thorburn. Haggery’s hopes of a double win, swiftly evaporated in the opening lap of the next race following a clash with Gronkowski at the first corner. That left Thorburn to fend off Championship leader, Michael Gray and Paul Kopec for the win.
The Classic Sports and Saloons races, renamed in the memory of Willie Robertson provided plenty of entertainment for the large crowd; with a number of racers returning to the track in tribute to their fellow racer who died recently. Former Classic Sports and Saloons Champions, Andy Smith and Russell Paterson brought their cars back to the track and immediately set about resuming their race winning pedigree. However, both had to play second fiddle to Harry Simpson in the opeing clash of the day; with the Edinburgh Butcher piloting his nimble Ginetta G4 for an impressive victory. Smith and Paterson would eventually get the better of Simpson in the final outing of the weekend in a enthralling encounter. There were also class wins for George Leitch, Robert Marshall and Raymond Boyd.
Iain Mitchell accepted the honour of driving Willie’s Datsun 240Z in this weekend’s races in front of Robertson’s family and friends. After coaxing the car to two seveth place finishes, Mitchell quipped:
“The car is just like Willie… very unique!”
In the Scottish Legends series, the Championship is beginning to hot up with a number of racers capable of taking race wins on any given day. Indeed, anyone from the top six in the standings is in with a shout of Championship glory.
John Patterson (6th in standings) secured his first ever race win in the series, whilst, Paul O’Brien and Duncan Vincent took the others. Championship leader Ross Mickel secured a number of vital points which may come in very handy as the series reaches its climax later this year.
Along with the tribute to Willie, there were also a number of other tributes paid by a number of racers this weekend. Both Michael Gray (Formula Ford) and Duncan Vincent (Legends) dedicated their podium scores to Matthew Polanski, a bike racer who sadly lost his life recently following an incident at Knockhill.
You can catch up with all the results from today on the MyLaps website.
The Mini Cooper Cup racers will be back out as part of the British Touring Car Championship event over the weekend of 24/25 August. Last year they provided arguably the most entertaining action on track and on current form, they could easily steal the show once again. Make sure you are hear for what prmoises to be a very special weekend of racing at Knockhill.
Finally, we’d like to thank all the marshals, officials and staff for all their hard work behind-the-scenes, without whom, racing events like today would just not take place.