Five things we learned from the BTCC at Knockhill | GRR
The British Touring Car Championship rolled into Knockhill to round off one of the busiest months in the series’ history. With the delayed season kicking off at the start of August, the fourth of four meetings in one month took place at one of the most popular circuits on the calendar. While the electric atmosphere synonymous with the home of Scottish Motorsport was replaced with empty spectator banks, the on track action was just as intense as the beauty of the Firth of Forth backdrop Knockhill provides, giving us plenty to talk about once more.
Sutton and Turkington in a class of their own
Knockhill has long been touted as a rear-wheel-drive friendly circuit, and it did nothing to dispel those illusions this weekend. Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington both took their rear-wheel-drive steeds to the top two steps of the podium in the opening pair of races, despite carrying full weight between them. You would have been forgiven for assuming that the organisers had forgotten to add the weight to the cars, however, as the Infiniti and the BMW just drove away from the chasing pack in races one and two. A double win for Sutton, and a brace of seconds for Turkington may have closed the gap to just 10 points between the two, but they are starting to check out at the top, holding a 33 point margin back to Rory Butcher in third.
Butcher desperate to impress at home
In a normal year, Rory Butcher would have been looking forward to an immense amount of support from the home faithful at Knockhill, and while he may not have had the fans cheering him on trackside, the intensity of someone desperate for home success was plain to see. In the opening two encounters you could see just how hard Butcher was pushing his Motorbase Ford Focus ST, almost to the point where you could argue he was trying that little bit too hard. At times some of the Scot’s driving was right on the ragged edge, but a fifth in race one bagged some important points before slipping back to tenth in race two. That slip proved to be vital, though, as he wound up on the front row for the reverse grid race. Having taken the lead and looking dominant at the start, he found himself having to do it twice after a hefty shunt involving Mike Bushell, Ollie Jackson and Sam Osborne saw the race red flagged – Bushell suffered a dislocated shoulder in the impact. With it all to do again, Butcher got the jump on pole man Senna Proctor for the second time and never looked back, securing that home win he was searching for.
Epic work from BTC Racing
It seems that someone somewhere is desperate for Josh Cook to not be in the title fight in 2020, as the BTC Racing driver once again suffered a severe lack of luck across the weekend. Having qualified mid pack it was always going to be a difficult start to the weekend for Cook, but a mechanical failure heading towards the chicane made things even worse. The failure caused his Honda Civic Type R to pirouette into the barriers, causing a lot of damage and casting a large question mark over the remainder of his day. Cue a phenomenal repair job from the BTC mechanics – with a little help from the Team Dynamics squad. Unfortunately it was all for nothing, as Cook ended up in the gravel just three corners into race two. A recovery drive to 15th salvaged one point from the weekend, but one of the pre-season ‘ones to watch’ now sits 17th after 12 rounds, and any hope of a shot at the title now seems well out of reach. It wasn’t all bad for BTC Racing, however, as Tom Chilton came home third at the end of race three to bring some silverware back to a garage in need of a pick-me-up.
Jake Hill on the rise
While Cook may be having a torrid time in his Civic Type R, Jake Hill has been enjoying a real rise to the top in his. Despite MB Motorsport’s old-shape Civic, Hill outqualified all of the more modern cars, lining up second alongside the dominant Ash Sutton. While he could do nothing about the charging Turkington, Hill held strong to take his second podium of the season, following his third place at Oulton Park seven days prior. An eighth in race two and a fifth in race three were enough to give Hill, in his own words, his best ever weekend in the BTCC. After just one finish in the first six races of the year, he has now finished no lower than eighth in the last six, meaning that he is enjoying the most consistent form of anyone on the grid at present.
HARD times for Team HARD
With the cars of Ollie Brown and Nic Hamilton not making the trip north of the border, Team HARD was running at half capacity at Knockhill. Race one then saw the biggest team in the paddock drop to 25 per cent as Jack Goff suffered an electric gremlin on the warmup lap and was unable to make the start, leaving Carl Boardley the lone Team HARD car left on the grid. Despite getting out for race two, Goff would remain pointless for the rest of the day, with Boardley’s five points across the three races enough to leapfrog his team-mate in the standings come Sunday evening.
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.