By Rob Andrews and Mick Palmer

(and it’s six points really…..)

Race three was a bit of a disaster for Dan Cammish, a three-into-one saw the NAPA Focus sidelined, then parked at the chicane at the start of the race. It turned out to be a battle against the clock for no return for the NAPA crew. Cammish was the first driver to appear in assembly after team members delivered the other three Motorbase machines. After that car after car and driver after driver turned up while the number nine car was under the awning with the bonnet up, with frantic activity surrounding it. Cammish was back and forth to and from the car and eventually it fired up and joined the field in pitlane, only to be rendered to the knackers yard just after the green flag.

Knockhill was rammed full once again, and if you wanted a trackside view for anything up to and including race two, you needed to be there early. Although it wasn’t as bad as last year when many latecomers jammed up the roads around the track as the first BTCC race got underway, there were some trickling in at that point. As for the exodus, as usual began after race two, but the first part of the BTCC paddock to do a runner was Goodyear, with their trucks exiting the circuit for the 300 mile journey south while race three was in progress.

Our Editor Mick took a shot to the goolies in race two up at the chicane. An errant car launched gravel during the race that connected with his right gonad and left him a bit worse for wear (the driver concerned was informed!) For the meantime Mick is on medical rest orders due to his uncomfortable bollock situation and will skip the BARC meeting at Croft this weekend. He’s hopeful that his knackers will be un-knackered in time for Snetterton next weekend. Now we know for certain that photographers (male or female) do actually need a decent pair of cojones (along with a lack of danger perception) to go trackside. Perhaps a sports cup instead of jogging shorts for next time?

The first meeting of the year without a podium for Josh Cook saw him fall to fifth in the championship. Frustration seems to be building. An alleged deleted tweet popped up over the weekend and the talk was of being down on power again. Knockhill was always viewed as a track that would be problematic for BTC and it proved so with a best position of eighth. The weekend almost mirrored Croft where a lucky draw for race three helped towards a podium in North Yorkshire with a similar outcome predicted – despite some reasonable testing times – for the next round at Snetterton. Cook remains at the top of the winners list with four under his belt this year.

Jake Hill had his most successful weekend in British Touring Cars. At the track where he took his first win in the championship in 2019 in the rather unsuccessful Audi S3, he nabbed pole, two fastest laps, a win and two second places, in a car (330 chassis ‘03) that he soundly beat (in the hands of Tom Oliphant that day.) It’s only the second time he’s pulled a triple podium in his career.

Family Fortunes. Since returning to the BTCC Gordon Shedden has had to face off against Brother-in-Law Rory Butcher in the the meetings at the family owned circuit. Butcher made his BTCC debut there in 2017 – the last season for Flash before his foray into the WTCC. In 2021 Shedden and Butcher went toe-to-toe with the Honda racer coming out on top in a battle for eight and ninth. This year they battled each other hard once again for seventh and eighth in race one and fifth and sixth in race two. Shedden again bested the Toyota racer, and it appears he has the upper hand when racing at their ‘home.’ But consider this; Shedden has a win rate of 1 in 11 races North of the border, but Butcher has hit 1 win in 9 in their literal back garden.