Mikey Doble emerged from the Knockhill round of the British Touring Car Championship still in contention for the Independent Drivers’ title, despite being forced to switch car for the event.
Just one week prior to the event, Power Maxed Racing looked like they would be out of the championship, following an inferno at the team’s headquarters which destroyed not only its equipment but also the team’s Vauxhall Astra cars with which it has raced since 2017.
However, the team rallied around and received unprecedented support from within the paddock, resulting in its remarkable continued participation in the championship.
The team was able to borrow two CUPRA Leons for the trip to Scotland – one from Dexter Patterson’s father and the other from rival squad Un-Limited Motorsport.
With the cars prepared at rapid pace in the run up to the weekend, it was a step into the unknown for Doble on Friday, when he and team-mate Nick Halstead were allowed to completed a handful of shakedown laps.
The 26-year-old then qualified in a commendable 15th on Saturday afternoon, just missing out on progressing into Q2.
Doble struggled to stay in the points in the opening race, however, battling to a 17th-place finish on his first start in the CUPRA, electing to get the harder medium-compound tyre out of the way early on.
He slipped to 18th for the second race, before recording a points finish in 15th in the final race. Crucially, Doble finished all three races fourth overall in the Independents category, limiting the damage to his title challenge, although he lost the lead of the category to Chris Smiley, who he now trails by 13 points.
Doble admitted that he had hoped for more from his weekend, but was full of praise for the work put in by his team and the support received from the wider motorsport community to help him be on the grid at all.
“I think it’s fair to say it’s not just been a rollercoaster weekend, but a rollercoaster week,” said Doble. “Just over seven days ago it was unclear whether we’d race again this season so to have now completed all three races at Knockhill is quite an achievement.
“I’ve got to say a massive thank you to every single member of the Power Maxed Racing team because what has been achieved over these last few days is nothing short of incredible.
“They moved heaven and earth to be here and put in some long hours to ensure we were competitive.
“Obviously being in Scotland was a win in itself but I would be lying if I didn’t say I hoped to come away with a little more from the weekend.
“That being said there were no real expectations as this was the first-ever time driving the Cupra.
“Every session was a step into the unknown, but we learnt a huge amount about the car.
“We’ve got a long way to go but we’ve got an idea of what direction we want to take the Cupra heading into the next round – so hopefully we will see more progress at Donington Park.”