After a break of almost 2 months, the Scottish Motor Racing scene returned to its home of Knockhill Racing Circuit after the well appreciated away round at Cadwell Park that was given a glowing reference by all those who took part.
Unfortunately for local driver Martin Buchan, he was unable to take part due to financial constraints but was back in action on Sunday for the 4th meeting of the Scottish Ford Fiesta XR2 Championship. Due to missing the last meeting Martin had dropped from 2nd in the overall championship down to 7th and from 2nd in the Newcomers championship to 3rd equal so there was plenty of ground to make up.
Testing took place on the Saturday and with not having driven the car in anger for almost 2 months, Martin took the sessions as an opportunity to find the limits once again and gain good mileage before race day hoping to continue his recent good form of having been in the top 6 in each race he has competed.
Race day took place under an overcast sky but thankfully come qualifying the rain had stayed away leaving a dry track for all the competitors. With Martin having fitted fresh tyres to the front of the car looking for more grip, he set off with high expectations of a good qualifying time. With a lot of returnee drivers coming back to the championship the track was quite congested and finding a clear track on which to set a fast time would be a hard task, martin started off behind his two team-mates hoping that with their speed he could gain a good speed advantage up the two straights and not be held up by slower cars. The plan worked well for Martin with a qualifying time of 1.04.971 which was good enough to qualify 5th in the XR2 class and 3rd in the newcomers but soon after Martin was promoted to 4th on the grid thanks to the 2nd placed qualifier having his time removed for his car being declared under the legal weight after the qualifying session. This put Martin on the 2nd row of the grid but also on the outside going into turn 1 which isn’t a personal favourite of Martin’s.
After the customary warm up laps, Martin took his place on the grid and with the 5 red lights going out he made his best start of the season and coming to turn 1 was challenging for 3rd. Unfortunately he was then passed for 4th position at turn 3 and was embroiled in a 3 car battle for 4th with Martin managing to pass up the main straight but losing the place soon after. The order was maintained until lap 5 when Martin managed to gain 4th place up the main straight once again but was able to fend off the challenges from behind and set off after the top 3. While the leading 2 cars had cleared off into the distance, Martin began to decrease the gap between him and 3rd place and on lap 8 managed to get alongside and completed the pass up the main straight to put him in a podium position. The order was maintained and Martin crossed the line to achieve his season goal of getting onto the podium for the first time in his racing career. Once the obligatory podium and interviews were completed the car was taken to scrutineering and deemed legal and the 3rd place stood.
With the podium achieved, Martin had high hopes for race 2 in being able to keep the 3rd place and achieve a double podium race weekend. The first few laps were hectic with martin being pressured from behind by 3 other cars and was almost taken out on the 1st lap when he cut off a rival going into Carlube and contact ensued but Martin was able to save the car with very little time lost. The frantic action ensued with the championship leader joining in the mix after his recovery from a poor race 1 result and the positions swapped several times during a single lap and on lap 7 Martin was still holding onto 3rd place but approaching carlube corner, Martin went to grab 4th gear and instead made a mistake in grabbing 2nd and with that the engine called it quits and Martin’s first retirement of the season was the end result. A disappointed Martin climbed out of the car and watched the final 2 laps before being towed back to the pits to await the customary jokes and sighs of more engine damage.
So after the joy of race 1, Martin was brought back down to earth with his retirement in race 2. With the podium in race 1, martin claimed 16 points in the main XR2 championship and 20 points in the XR2 Newcomers cup by finishing 2nd in the newcomers class. However news came through on Monday that the 2nd place finisher in race 1 had been disqualified which gave Martin an overall 2nd place and top of the newcomers’ class for race 1 which meant 20 points in the XR2 main championship and
25points in the newcomers.
After 4 race meetings, Martin currently stands 9th in the main XR2 championship with 68 points and 4th in the XR2 Newcomers table with 93 points.
The next meeting at Knockhill takes place on Saturday 21st August. Coverage of the series can be found on Motors TV (Sky 413, Virgin 545 XL Package) with the latest episode being broadcast on 26th August at 20:10hrs with repeats throughout the week.
