Chris Smiley rued a start line mistake in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Knockhill, which left the Excelr8 Motorsport driver wondering ‘what if’ after a weekend of promising pace.
Smiley was one of the standout performers from the weekend in Scotland, with the Northern Irishman having been fastest of all in Saturday’s free practice sessions before qualifying his Hyundai in third for race one.
Although he dropped two places in the opening race, to the charging Josh Cook and championship leader Ash Sutton, Smiley was nonetheless rewarded with his best result of the season as he took the chequered flag in fifth.
A disastrous start in race two, which nearly saw Smiley collected from behind, saw him drop to 17th on the opening lap, although Smiley was able to put in a determined recovery drive to end the race in 13th and salvage some points.
Free of ballast for race three, the 29-year-old fought through the field to end the race in sixth, and ensure that Knockhill would be his best weekend of the season thus far, moving him up to 14th overall in the drivers’ championship.
Smiley acknowledged his mistake in race two, which ultimately denied him a chance at benefitting from the reversed grid for race three.
“I messed up the start in race two which was my fault,” admitted Smiley. “It’s a shame as a good result there would have put is right in the mix for race three.
“But overall, we came back from 13th to sixth which is no mean feat and I had to push hard to get my way through the field.
“It’s a weekend where I wonder ‘what if’ but we showed we have genuine pace in qualifying and that our race pace was strong.”
Prior to Knockhill, Smiley was enduring a difficult season which had bagged him just five top ten finishes from 12 races.
“It’s taken me a bit of time to get dialled into the car with the changes we have made but I’m feeling much more comfortable now and I know we can be strong through the rest of the season.”