Ollie Jackson topped Knockhill's Dunlop #ForeverForward running with 17 places gained over the weekend but West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard retained his overall lead despite a mixed three rounds in Scotland.
The weekend started well for AmD Tuning.com with Jackson’s Audi S3 showing pace through free practice, but his hopes of converting that into a strong qualifying performance were ended by an off into the gravel at the Arnold Clark Chicane; an off that left him at the back of the grid for race one.
Jackson worked his way forwards from 31st on the grid to take the flag in 23rd spot in the opener and was hopeful of building on that in race two before being forced to retire with an exhaust issue – forcing retirement on safety grounds and leaving him to battle his way through the field again in race three.
With the issue fixed for race three and a series of revisions made to the car, the Audi was at its most competitive and, avoiding some chaos around him, Ollie fought his way forwards into the top 20 but fell just short of a points finish.
“I have to hold my hands up in qualifying as I made a stupid mistake and have been kicking myself for it ever since,” he said. “I’ve never gone off in qualifying before but I was just pushing too hard on cold tyres, and I felt so bad for the team after the work they had put in in recent weeks.
“Ultimately, that played a big part in how race day panned out and having made up places in race one, I was hoping to do the same in race two until I was forced to retire. Unfortunately it meant we were too far back to really make the most of the improvements we found for race three, when the car was at its best and we had some good pace.
“That’s reflected in the fact that we came from the back to finish inside the top 20 but unfortunately, it’s a weekend where we’ve not been able to secure the end result we deserved.”
With seven events completed, the results and standings are as follows – Drivers’ Championship leader Rob Collard still heads the pack:
Dunlop #ForeverForward drivers of the weekend
1 Ollie Jackson 17
2 Martin Depper 16
3 Adam Morgan 15
Dunlop #ForeverForward overall standings
1 Rob Collard 107
2 Martin Depper 97
3 Rob Austin 81
