Tuesday 26th August 2014

BTCC 2014: Knockhill

Iain Cameron was our PHer on the ground (and in the sunshine!) at Knockhill

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Well who could have guessed it? A Bank Holiday weekend at Knockhill and not a drop of rain... Perfect conditions for our latest BTCC Reporter Iain Cameron to enjoy some fantastic racing at the Fife track. You can read below his review of Rounds 19, 20 and 21 below. And if you're in need of a little more to stave off Bank Holiday boredom, be sure to check out our previous PHer reports by clicking the links.

Donington Park - Andy Swift
Thruxton - Jon Spriggs
Oulton Park - Alan Taylor
Croft - Mark Benson
Snetterton - Alexey Underwood

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Despite being the birthplace of many legendary motorsport figures, Scotland has precious few racing facilities. Knockhill is arguably the most famous and has been flying the flag as the proving ground for Scottish racing talent for 40 years - and what better way to celebrate this milestone than welcoming rounds 19, 20 and 21 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship north of the border?

Track's there somewhere boys...

Knockhill is a track of extremes - steep undulating turns, launch-pad chicanes, short run-off areas and, for the spectators and drivers alike, challenging weather conditions. Even shelving the journalistic hyperbole, it's remains entirely reasonable to say that nowhere in the world encapsulates "four seasons in one day" quite like Knockhill. Yet whilst it takes a die-hard fan to brave the elements on this wind-beaten Fife hilltop, the reward is often close and exciting racing.

This weekend in the BTCC was no different. The Scots crowd had four home drivers to cheer on - Shedden, Newsham, Geddie and Moffat - helping to turn the atmosphere up to 11 at the crucible-like Fife racetrack.

Sunday's opener saw Tordoff start from pole after a penalty dropped Turkington down the grid - the championship leader proving the rear-drive BMW's pace at this circuit by scoring the quickest time in qualifying. Rob Austin started second in "Sherman", his Audi A4 - following a strong performance last year at Knockhill - ahead of the Hondas of Jordan, local hero Shedden and Neal.

Shedden still managed third in race one

The 31 entrants swamped the 1.3-mile circuit, with the starting grid stretching back to the final hairpin - surely a candidate for the largest ever grid at Knockhill. As expected of modern BTCC racing there were plenty of bumps and scrapes - a collective groan from the crowd accompanied Shedden's spin at the bottom of Duffus Dip, repeated a few laps later when Turkington was nudged into the gravel after a thrilling battle. Mid-way through the race, the famous Knockhill kerbs launched Welch's Proton skyward into the side of Holland's Rotek Racing Audi S3, spelling the end of the race for them both.

All this action conspired to allow Matt Neal through for a deserving but unexpected win - his first of the 2014 season in the Civic Tourer. Incredibly, the action also promoted teammate Shedden to third - a fantastic comeback from his earlier spin. Austin in the Audi separated the two Honda drivers.

Collard romped to victory in race two

I took a spot at the end of the braking zone into the hairpin for Race Two of the weekend - a perfect place to see the drivers out-brake each other before powering up the hill over the start-finish line. Matt Neal started on pole, but was handed a penalty by officials for jumping the start. This left the race to second-place Mat Jackson in the Airwaves Focus. Jackson dominated the race, finishing ahead of Plato in the MG and Austin in the Audi - again, a strong showing from Austin, making the most of the rear-drive A4.

The race had seen Turkington start from the rear of the grid - a case of throwing salt in the wounds after being punted off track in the first race. However, he staged an incredible comeback to finish fourth, setting fastest lap in the BMW and reeling in Austin. Had the race run longer, he'd have likely taken a podium place.

With its reverse grid, race three gave the eBay Motors BMW team even more cause to smile - Foster started on pole and all three cars were inside the top ten. Collard made light work of the traffic before romping off into the Scottish sunset to take an imperious win. Newsham took second in the final standings, giving both the home crowd and his team something to celebrate - it was AmD's first ever podium finish.

31 cars, one at a time...

For the first time in a BTCC weekend, all three victories were scored on Dunlop's soft tyre. Tyres seem to fuel paddock chatter in all modern motorsport, and in an effort to understand tyre strategy I spoke with Mickey Butler, Dunlop Motorsport Sales and Product Manager. Mickey and his team - fresh from fitting over 600 tyres in preparation between Thursday and Friday - elected to bring the soft and medium compounds to Knockhill: "We're still learning about the new tyre construction for this season, which is intended to give the drivers more feel and response. Knockhill is a kind circuit to the tyres and suits the softs well, meaning the drivers have more confidence to use the softer compound. The new construction has been a great success, with good feedback from the drivers and new lap records at each round so far this season." Dunlop aims to filter the tyre technology down to the road with their Sport Maxx range of performance rubber.

"Four seasons in one day" may be the norm at Knockhill - but in a rare occurrence, the huge crowd enjoyed glorious sunshine all day. The extraordinary weather was accompanied by extraordinary racing - the BTCC continues to serve up some of the best action in motorsport, and is ideally suited to this frenetic little Scottish circuit. Let's hope for more of the same at Rockingham!

[Pics: LAT]

[zippyprorider]

Race three watching Matt Neal brake test car behind to allow sheddon to get a run on the car in front was possibly the most ridiculous thing I have "legally" seen in Motorsport. Where will that stop Matt Neal punting cars off the track to help sheddon or parking horizontally across the track behind him.

Edited by zippyprorider on Monday 25th August 19:32

[Rich Boy Spanner]

Went to Knockhill for the first time for this years BTCC. I usually see it at Oulton Park and decided to do a double this year. Came away a bit undecided. Queued for 55 minutes to get into the car park, to find the hold up being people buying program's via wireless card machines at the gate from staff in no hurry whatsoever to get people into the car parks.
Had to move twice, first time due to a bunch of people non-stop dope smoking and then a bunch of drunks effing and jeffing. Not really what I was expecting or ever seen at any other circuit and not what I want my kids to be exposed to.
The crowd only ever cheered for Sheddon...totally mute for any other driver.
Bit of a shame really as the track and the racing was brilliant.

[gremlin666]

Thouroughly enjoyed this. I normally hate Knockhill. The line up at the finish was usually the same as the grid, unless someone spun off. And that ridiculous inclined hairpin! The only thing worse is the 'six lane motorway' that is Rockingham.

But this had to be the most entertaining meet this season.

Did everyone see those two in the Ginettas after the flag? Hilarious! 'Track Rage'!

[Robert Burns]

Managed to see them hit each other just leaving the Scotsman corner brilliant hahaha