Things are starting to hot up in classes C and D of Super Lap Scotland powered by Rockstar Energy Drink for 2018. Class D in particular has four or five drivers all pushing for those series wins.
In the latest instalment back in June (Rounds 2 and 3), Class C and D competitors ventured onto both Knockhill track configurations to play out the latest SLS drama with Saturday’s round on the Reverse Circuit and Sunday’s on the Clockwise track.
With three different winners already this season, class D looks set to go down to the wire this year. Saturday’s victor was Paul Bell, making his SLS debut in his Mini Cooper ahead of Ian Pitman and Ian Hoggins.
The Sunday spoils went to Marshall Wishart ahead of the returning Ian Bonthrone in his road-going BMW E46 M3 – with Ian returning to SLS after leaving the Championship to participate in a spot of Mini Endurance Racing down south. It was welcome relief for Marshall to put his start of season woes behind him and to finally take that top step of the podium is Class D. There’s a lot of hard work gone into Marshall’s car over the winter following his move from Class E to D and all that time and effort finally paid off for the Shetlander with the win last time out.
Looking at Class C and we see a few familiar names at the head of the Championship. Blair McConachie has been involved in a fair few Championship battles in his time with SLS and this season looks no different. As we’ve seen in the past, Blair is mighty quick around Knockhill when it is dry in his Caterham Superlight R – but with Saturday’s round being wet, it was somewhat of a surprise when Blair topped qualifying ahead of the returning Bob MacKay and fellow Championship contender Chris Cherry. But, despite a strong start to the day, Cherry would overhaul McConachie in Saturday’s final to walk away with the win.
Sunday’s event saw the reverse of that result, with McConachie taking both the qualifying and final win ahead of Chris Cherry in both sessions. There was mechanical failure for Bob MacKay that put a dampener on his return to SLS, but that also provided an opportunity for Steve Arkley to enjoy some podium success in third place.
Heading into Rounds 4 and 5 this weekend, Chris Cherry leads the Championship ahead of Blair McConachie (5pts) and Steve Arkley (36pts). However, with Ian Bonthrone and Jack Starthdee all making a return this weekend, Cherry will likely have his hands full despite McConachie missing this round for work reasons.
Tickets for this weekend’s (21/22 July) can be booked online via the Knockhill website. As well as SLS action, this weekend we’ll be joined by the British Sprint Championship and the Scottish Legends Championship will appear on an SLS event bill for the very first time (Sunday Only). For full event details, please check out the Knockhill event webpage.
