Mike Bushell had a mixed weekend in the latest round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, where his raw pace went unrewarded.

Having returned to the top ten at the previous round, he would have been hoping to build on that momentum at Knockhill.

The weekend started well, with a solid run in first practice seeing Mike finish just shy of the top ten places. The 26-year-old then matched his time in FP2 to leave the team in confident mood heading into the all-important qualifying session – where he secured 16^th on the grid, just seven tenths of a second off pole.

Moving into the points on the opening lap of race one, Mike ran as high as 13^th despite an issue with his Ford Focus leading to a loss of straight line performance. Forced to drive an increasingly defensive race, Mike crossed the line in 15^th to secure the final point and clinched top rookie honours.

The issue with the car meant Mike was only able to post the 22^nd quickest lap, which was where he would then start the second race of the weekend.

Despite the car still not being at its best, Mike battled his way forward to the fringes of the points before being forced to pull off to retire on the 17^th lap. Tracing his problems to the fuel pump, the team was able to replace the part for race three, with Mike taking his position towards the rear of the field.

Mike quickly set about making up places on the softer compound Dunlop tyre, although contact from the Infiniti of Derek Palmer would damage the handling of the Ford.

Despite that, Mike was able to battle his way forwards to 18^th spot, to add more points to his Jack Sears Trophy tally.

Speaking after the weekend, Mike said: “Knockhill has been a good circuit for in the past, but this weekend I almost feel like Lady Luck has run off and had an affair!

“Things looked really good at the end of Saturday and it’s probably the strongest position we have been in going into race day. We had good pace in practice and qualifying and it looked like we were on for a strong race day.

“Unfortunately, the issue with the fuel pump then prevented me from finishing higher in race one, and prevented me from finishing at all in race two. The guys got the fuel pump replaced for race three and we got a good start, but then I got a hit from Derek Palmer which knocked the rear out and it meant we ended up cooking the tyres.

“It’s a shame because we had the pace to fight our way into the points, but there are positives we can take away from the weekend and we’ll come out fighting at Rockingham.”

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