BRISTOL STREET MOTORs with EXCELR8 driver Ronan Pearson will hope for an upturn in fortune when the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship heads for his home circuit of Knockhill (12/13 August), after a challenging weekend on track at Croft.
The trip to North Yorkshire kicked off the second half of Pearson's rookie season. Following two productive practice sessions that ended with him finding six-tenths of a second, Pearson put his car in 13th place on the grid during Qualifying.
With the requirement to use all three compound of tyre across race day, the Scottish-driver elected to run the soft tyre at the first opportunity, in a bid to try and push for his first top-ten finish of the campaign. Unfortunately, an incident resulted in an early DNF for the 21-year-old.
Switching to the hard tyre for race two, an incident would once again result in a trip to the pits for Pearson, dropping him off the lead lap and ending in 25th at the finish.
With expected rain not arriving for the final race, Pearson took his place on the grid on the medium tyre and rocketed straight up into 17th place.
After an early caution period, Pearson’s forward progress continued as he worked his way into 14th and was looking to gain further ground when a contact-induced vibration saw him lose pace and slip back down to 19th place.
"Having had the summer break to regroup, I was confident about a strong weekend at Croft to kickstart the second half of the season," said Pearson.
"We found time in practice but I knew there was more to come, and the team worked really hard to make improvements to the car ahead of qualifying. When we went out on track, the car was transformed and I was really pleased to secure P13 on the grid as the best of the Jack Sears Trophy drivers, as it set us up well for race day.
"Having decided to run the soft tyre in race one, I was hoping to push forwards towards the top ten but then an incident ended our race early.
"That was frustrating as it was our soft tyre run, so we elected to get the hard tyre out of the way in race two. I had a bit of moment that meant I had to pit to have grass removed from the front of the car, and it left us with work to do in the final race.
"On the medium tyre we had really good pace and it looked like we’d be able to score the points finish that I feel we deserved this weekend but again, luck wasn’t on my side and we took a hit that left me with a vibration and it was a case of just nursing the car home.
"It’s been tough but I just need to put this behind me and come out fighting at Knockhill, which is my biggest event of the season by far and one where I really hope to go well in front of the home fans."
