Senna Proctor was relieved to get a traffic-free run in in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill, where the BTC Racing driver narrowly missed out on a second successive pole position.
Proctor had been in eighth in the timesheets before he hit the top of the times with just seven minutes remaining of the session on Saturday afternoon, the Honda driver enjoying a right-place-at-the-right-time lap with little traffic.
However, he ultimately missed out on another pole in the BTCC when BMW’s Colin Turkington edged him out by a tenth of a second, leaving Proctor to start race one on Sunday from second on the grid.
“This one was a good one,” said the 23-year-old. “I don’t feel like we quite had the pace in the car then, really, but when the opportunity came up I had just got everything together and there was no traffic, so that was good.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do before the race tomorrow, but here in free practice two earlier the car was a lot stronger in race trim than it was in qualifying, so I’m glad to get out of qualifying and bring on the races tomorrow.”
Proctor admits that he has struggled to find the sweet spot with the Honda Civic in terms of setup, as he felt relieved that he didn’t get caught up in traffic on his fast lap.
“We’ve struggled a little bit getting the tyres in the right window; it seems to be a thing with this Honda that I’ve struggled with.
“I think we got a bit lucky with the track position we had, we certainly were fortunate, and I’m glad that I got the lap in. For us tomorrow, we’re always stronger in the race than we are in qualifying.”
Proctor is hoping to make a better start than he did two weeks’ ago at Oulton Park, where he dropped from first to fifth in the space of a few corners.
“I’ll try not to make a mess of the start like I did at Oulton Park, and I’ll try to have a better race day and get a couple of podiums tomorrow.
“We’ve done a few practice starts at shakedown this time. I’m sure Colin will be hard to beat off the line, but we’ll give it our best shot!”