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For the second season in a row,
Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell has secured his best result of the season
in the annual trip to Scotland
for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
Martyn headed to the picturesque
Knockhill circuit having scored one top ten finish this season – at Oulton Park – but added to his points
tally in the opening race of the weekend with his best result to date this
year.
Despite feeling a little under
the weather, and with his BMW 320i still showing some of the after-effects of
his accident at Brands Hatch two weeks ago, Martyn qualified in 15th
place on the grid and then set about improving his position during the
opening 24 lap encounter.
A solid run saw him take the
flag in tenth place, but with Tom Onslow-Cole being excluded from the results
post-race, Martyn moved up to ninth to secure two welcome points towards his
overall total. Unfortunately, the second race wouldn’t go to plan with
a spin at the John R Weir chicane dropping him to the rear of the field after
an intriguing battle with Fiona Leggate’s MG and the Honda of Alan
Taylor.
In the final race, Martyn was
able to bring home another solid finish as he held off the challenge of Fiona
for 13th, although he admitted afterwards that the weekend
hadn’t been the easiest of the season.
“It’s been quite a
struggle really,” he admitted. “I’ve been a bit ill over
the weekend and we haven’t got the flatshift sorted out from Brands
Hatch, so I was driving with a gearbox like a road car again – which we
hadn’t been expecting. So all things considered, I think we can go away
from Scotland
with mission accomplished. The circuit is fantastic, but the back end of the
car was a bit loose and it was a handful to wrestle round this weekend.
“Despite that, our
lap-times were improving all weekend and we have come away from the trip with
some points in the opening race. In the second race I had a bit of a spin out
of the chicane which meant I lost time and then we had to change the diff
before the final race. It worked okay and we brought home another finish.
“We now need to sort the
flatshift out, which might mean the car needs to go back to Germany to
have some re-programming done. The little battle amongst the midfield runners
is looking good going into the final rounds and hopefully we can finish the
season on a high at Thruxton.”
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