It was an extremely eventful weekend for Nathan Heathcote as he suffered crashes and experienced some shocking luck during round six of the Ginetta GT4 SuperCup at Knockhill in Scotland.
Seeing the technically difficult Knockhill circuit for the first time on Friday, Nathan by his own admission found the free practice sessions very challenging, as he tried to learn the blind crests and corners, whilst calibrating his braking markers.
Come qualifying things seemed to ‘click’ for the young Kentish racer and he posted a strong lap to take the second fastest time; just 1/1000th of a second behind his Century Motorsport teammate and rival Jack Oliphant.
With good weather all weekend the scene was set for three hard races but unfortunately for Nathan, luck was not on his side! Saturday’s race after qualifying saw Nathan have a great battle with ‘Am’ rivals Colin White and James Kell before the safety car came out after Dan Kirby’s race ended prematurely after a crash.
The race was extended from 16 to 18 laps, but after suffering a 10 second penalty for a false start, Nathan ultimately finished 4th in his class but fired up to improve on that position in Sunday’s two races. Nathan became the first driver in the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup championship to surpass the 400 mark; with a total of 403 points. Sunday’s opening race also saw more drama for Nathan as he collided with another car early in the race and went to the back of the pack.
He then made his way up to third but was penalised for an overtake. His 51.094 second lap was the fastest of the race and indeed the whole weekend. Starting race three frustrated but determined, Nathan again experienced the rough end of the stick as on lap two a driver went off track and as he re-joined they collided.
The resulting smash damaged his steering and meant he had to pull out, rounding out a ‘weekend to forget’.
Speaking after the weekend, Nathan said: “It’s been a massively disappointing weekend all round to be honest. I took a while to get up to speed but then it clicked and I think we had the pace to win all three races but that’s not how it turned out!
“We’ve been on the back foot all weekend with new mechanics and trying to learn the track really, so I’m pretty gutted. I’ve just been for a walk around a loch to clear my head, we need to regroup now before Silverstone, which at least I’ve driven round once before!”
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