Andrew Watson returned to BTCC action at Croft with a battling display to claim a solid haul of points in his ongoing battle for the Jack Sears Trophy. The weekend got off to a solid start for the Northern Irishman as he displayed consistent running in Saturday's free practice sessions to prepare the car for the all important qualifying session that was to follow that afternoon. Qualifying would see Andrew secure P20 on the grid after a heavily disrupted session prevented him from showcasing his true pace as the track conditions continued to improve. But he would remain undeterred and ready to battle it out through the field on Sunday morning. Race one on Sunday morning would see Andrew fighting it out with the rest of the UK’s brightest touring car talents on a typically eventful race day in front of a capacity crowd as he gained several places to take the chequered flag in P16 to kick off the day on a positive note. Race two would see a similar tenacious display, as Andrew looked to continue making up the ground and climb into the points paying positions, besting stablemate, Mikey Doble, with a hard-fought P14 finish at the flag. For the final race of the weekend, Andrew would look to end the day on another high, but would be forced off at Tower corner, which resulted in him losing ground. However, he would battle back from this misfortune to secure P14 and with it another points finish. With these latest results Andrew remains P20 in the overall drivers' standings with 30 points, 5th in the Independents Trophy with 190 points and moves up to second in the Jack Sears Trophy standings with 259 points respectively. The season now takes its annual trip up to the iconic Knockhill circuit on the 12-13 August. Looking back on the weekend, Andrew said:
“Everything today was hard-fought for, I would say. We gave ourselves a lot to do with qualifying not going to plan, but we fought through the pack well, scored really good Jack Sears points and got up to second in that championship.
“It’s not bad, from that point of view. I got run off in the last race, but touring cars is rough, so I felt the brunt of that! Overall, not a bad weekend, we closed up the championship lead, and I’m learning lots. Plenty to digest before Knockhill, which I’m looking forward to already.”
Imagery courtesy of Power Maxed Racing
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