Modsports drama leaves the title race wide open
The Knockhill Modsports Championship title race remains wide open heading into the final round following a dramatic twin layout double-header at the Fife circuit last weekend.
A pair of frightening accidents for Mini drivers Adam Morrison and Natalie Cowie in the closing stages of Sunday’s second encounter brought out the red flags, leaving Shaun Davidson’s points lead intact ahead of October’s finale.
Cowie had been Davidson’s nearest challenger pre-weekend, but a strong Saturday meant fellow Class G rival Morrison took up the mantle on Sunday. But a horrendous high-speed barrel roll on the last lap put paid to his chances, the damage writing off his Mini in the process.
“I came sliding through the chicane and clipped the sausage kerb while I was still sliding, and it just launched me,” Morrison explained. “Looking at the video, I’d say I rolled maybe six or seven times. The car is destroyed, the steering column is broken so it’s definitely game over for this car. We’ll see what we can do for the final round, we’re still in with a shout of the title so we might have to borrow someone else’s car if we’re back in October.”
The significance of his final-lap shunt was not lost on Morrison, who would otherwise have left the weekend tied on 104 points with Class F’s Davidson after the Peterhead driver scored zero points on Sunday as a throttle position sensor issue left his BMW Compact in limp mode. Cowie’s exit was no less dramatic; a brake failure approaching the Hairpin took her out of second in class two laps from the end.
Paul Brydon took both wins on the reverse layout on Saturday after Ron Cumming’s Nemesis Kit Car came to blows with a lapped Adam Kindness at the chicane. A subsequent gear selection issue forced Cumming out of race two and the rest of the weekend. On Sunday, Andy Forrest’s Radical dominated proceedings and cruised to two comfortable wins, with Brydon’s iconic ex-scandinavian Touring Car Championship Solution F BMW silhouette taking a pair of second places.
Clutch failure in the closing stages of the opening Scottish Fiesta ST Cup race of the weekend left points leader Gerry Hendry
wondering what could have been as he ended up sharing the wins with nearest title rival Kieren Preedy. Having started third on the grid, Hendry made a strong getaway and was second by the first corner before snatching the lead from Preedy on the inside at Clarks on lap five of 12.
Preedy was ready to settle for second but was given a late reprieve as Hendry’s clutch began to fail three laps from home. Preedy then captured the lead on the final tour to seal the win. With a new clutch fitted before race two, Hendry ensured there would be no repeat of his earlier misfortune and took his seventh triumph of the year to put himself within touching distance of the championship.
Away from the overall battle, Lorn Murray and Sophie Kinghorn provided their fair share of thrills – and spills. Teenager Kinghorn, in just her second season of car racing, was particularly impressive as she took on more established competitors in the opener but was disqualified for a manoeuvre on Murray at the exit of Duffus Dip the stewards deemed too aggressive. Relegated to the back of the grid for race two, she fought through the field along with Murray, finishing just half a second adrift of her regular rival over the line in seventh place.
With his fifth win of the season, and fourth in six races, Dan Martin cut Murray Scott’s Scottish C1 Cup championship advantage to just four points ahead of October’s finale. Heavy mist on Saturday morning meant qualifying was essentially turned into a slow-speed familiarisation, with the points standings setting the grid for race one. That suited Scott perfectly as he raced away from the front row, with Martin dropping behind James Hitchen to third.
Martin got back ahead of Hitchen but bent a front suspension arm after getting clipped by Ayden Wilson as the latter went too deep attempting to pass Hitchen on the last lap. That dropped Martin to third, but victory in the second race as Scott toiled to fourth means the title race is all to play for next month.
Having been disqualified from Saturday’s second Scottish Legends heat for ignoring a mechanical black-and-orange flag, Stewart Black probably thought the opening leg of the Knockhill double-header couldn’t have got much worse. The non-score was followed by a big opening-lap crash after contact with Gary Atkinson in the final, denting not only his car but his hopes of a fourth successive title. Extensive late-evening repairs completed, Black won Sunday’s opening heat and was subsequently runner-up to Saturday final winner Ryan Mcleish to bounce back in style. Mcleish doubled up in Sunday’s final as Black limited the damage further with third place.
Andrew Graham and Alastair Baptie produced a glittering display of Scottish Classics action as they split the wins on the clockwise configuration on Sunday. Triple champion Baptie, back in his MGB GT V8, duked it out with Graham’s Triumph TR8 for the duration of the 12-lap race one, eventually coming out on top by just
0.084 seconds at the flag. Race two was less eventful and was settled in Graham’s favour after he passed Baptie early on and sprinted away to victory by over 6s. Elsewhere, there was disappointment for the returning Mario Ferrari, whose Ferrari 308 was ruled out before race one with an oil leak.
The Northern Saloon and Sports Car season came to a close at Knockhill, with Stephen Reece defending the overall title in his Lotus Elise. Matty Cobb dominated proceedings, taking his VW Beetle-inspired Radical to victory on the anti-clockwise layout on Saturday before repeating the feat on the conventional circuit the following day. The pick of the battles undoubtedly came in the second bout as Andrew Morrison snatched second place by just 0.069s in his SEAT Leon after a sensational overtake on Bill Addison’s Caterham at Hislop’s on the final lap.