Michael Crees heads to the most northerly track on the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship calendar this weekend as the second half of the 2022 season gets underway – the annual visit of the BTCC to Knockhill Circuit in Scotland.
Embarking on a journey of some 500 miles from his home in Broadstairs to the uniquely challenging track in Fife, where rounds 16, 17 and 18 will take place this coming Sunday, 31st July, ‘Creesy’ is aiming to well and truly kick-start his campaign with Power Maxed Racing.
Carrying good momentum into the sixth event of the season after a successful outing during the two-day Goodyear tyre test at Snetterton 300 Circuit a couple of weeks ago, Creesy is determined to be in a position to deliver his best performance of the year so far at 1.27-mile Knockhill.
During the mid-summer test, which featured almost the entire BTCC grid, Creesy steered his No.777 Vauxhall Astra to the seventh fastest time overall on the second morning and also ended the outing as the quickest Independents Trophy runner.
Providing a major boost, the work completed over the two days – well, day and a half as he sat out the second afternoon – provided Creesy with a vital chance to work through a series of set-up changes to try and unlock more pace and potential from the Astra.
Going into the Knockhill weekend, the Glencar Construction, Geberit, DDS Group, PCS, Fire Control Services, CTD, Blue Rock Systems, Aquadart and BITA supported driver is ninth in the Independents Trophy standings with a trio of top three class finishes. He has also chalked-up eight outright points finishes so far, with a career-best overall race result of eighth place in round nine at Thruxton.
Speaking ahead of the weekend, Crees said: “I’m feeling really pumped up for Knockhill, especially after such a strong run at the tyre test a couple of weeks ago – we really did feel we made some good steps forward with the car. Knockhill is a great track, like no other we visit on the BTCC calendar, and it’s the kind of place where you really need to get stuck in and try and make things happen – which is what I like to do!
“There is a lot of potential in the team and I’m hungry to start pushing further and further up the order. We want to be regularly in that overall top 10 and that’s my aim, so we’ll have to see what we can do in Scotland and see if we can utilise some of what we learnt at Snetterton. They’re obviously two very different tracks though. Knockhill is a long way from home for us but we’ll still have plenty of guests coming along, I’m really looking forward to it!”
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