Mikey Doble brought the curtain down on his maiden Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch (7/8 October) as he produced a trio of charging drives.
The CarStore Power Maxed Racing racer underlined his credentials as one to watch for the future although it was not enough for him to clinch the Jack Sears Trophy title.
Despite missing out on the coveted crown, the 24-year-old’s inaugural campaign in the UK’s premier motorsport series has been nothing short of impressive, with a string of standout results garnering plenty of attention.
In addition to clinching a career-first pole position at Silverstone (16/17 September), the Vauxhall Astra ended up scoring overall points in 16 races, claiming an outright Independents’ victory in just his second-ever race and weekend Jack Sears Trophy honours on two occasions.
Arriving at Brands Hatch’s Grand Prix circuit bidding to overturn a 18-point deficit to team-mate Andrew Watson in the Jack Sears Trophy, the Surrey-based racer kicked off the pursuit of his rival on the right foot as he out-qualified him on Saturday afternoon.
In what proved to be an ultra-competitive session, the front-wheel-drive ace set a best time of 1:30.333s around the 2.433-mile circuit to clinch ninth on the grid for Sunday’s opening contest.
Race one proved to be one of frustration for Doble as he had to retire following contact with Stephen Jelley (Team BMW). Up until that incident, Doble had comfortably been running inside the top eight, a place where he was confident of running across all three races.
Tasked with starting at the back of the field for race two, he put his head down and climbed up the order to just miss out on a points finish in 16th.
Doble concluded his season in a frenetic finale as he kept himself out of trouble to muscle his way into the points-paying positions.
Doble said: “What a weekend to cap off what has been a fantastic season of racing. We had to come into Brands Hatch at the top of our game to stand a chance of threatening the Jack Sears Trophy title and I feel we left nothing on the table.
"A very strong Saturday left us qualifying inside the top ten for the third time this season and crucially we were able to comfortably out-qualify all of my championship rivals.
"With the Jack Sears Trophy being somewhat out of reach after race one, we managed to drive from P26 at the start of race two up to an eventual points finish in race three to cap off the season.
"My thanks and congratulations go to everyone at CarStore Power Maxed Racing on a fantastic season. The hard work now begins to establish our plans for 2024.”
