Tom Oliphant scored his best-ever result in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Knockhill, bringing his Mercedes home in sixth, leaving the Ciceley Motorsport driver pleased with his pace in Scotland.
Dry conditions on Saturday allowed Oliphant to put in his best qualifying performance of the year to line his A-Class up in seventh for race one.
The Cheshire racer then handled the wet conditions well in Sunday’s opening race, taking seventh despite having slipped back to ninth at the halfway stage of the sodden race.
Race two, however, saw Oliphant slide off the road after ten laps in treacherous conditions, locking his brakes in standing water and causing a mid-race safety car intervention.
The 28-year-old thus started from near the back for race three, from where he was only able to make limited progress to 26th in difficult conditions, hindered in part by an issue for the car ahead at a safety car restart leaving Oliphant unable to immediately pass and on the back foot for the restart.
“It’s been an up and down weekend overall, but I come away really pleased with the pace we have shown,” said Oliphant. “To finish both free practice sessions in the top eight without new tyres, and then convert it into a season’s best seventh in qualifying was fantastic.
“The change of weather made the opening race a real challenge, but I was learning the track and conditions with everyone else and our pace was strong. I was able to pull clear of the pack and stay with the top six, which is a great result for us.
“We made some changes to the car for race two and it felt truly fantastic, but unfortunately I locked the rears into turn one, hit the standing water and aquaplaned sideways off track, before doing the same at the final hairpin soon after.
“That was frustrating, and it left me at the back of the grid for race three. I went about picking off people and making progress, but after being left so far behind at the restart, the tyres just weren’t there for me by the time I got onto the back of the train.
“I brought the car home though, got no damage across the three races and have come away knowing that we had the pace to finish inside the top ten in all three races.
“Hopefully luck will finally come my way soon and we can enjoy a great end to the season.”