David Pinkney lined up on the grid for the first race of the day at Knockhill in round 7 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship on 13th place and confident about his race pace but his weekend came to a frustrating finish after being forced into retirement in two of the three races on the most northernly circuit on the calendar.

Due to battles up ahead during race one, David was able to climb up to as high as 9th but he ran slightly wide at the John R Weir Chicane, putting a wheel into the gravel which dropped him down to eleventh where he would finish.

His strong finish in race one meant that he would start the second race of the day from 11th on the grid but all hopes of scoring points were shattered when David took his NGTC-turbo Vauxhall Vectra spinning across the grass and collecting Rob Collard on his return to the circuit.

The subsequent damage meant that David would have to retire and give his mechanics a lot of work to do to get the car out and racing for race three.

The team worked flat out to get the car out onto the grid as he took his place at the back of the pack in a very battle scarred Vectra sporting heavy front end damage. Pinkney moved up to 13th and was pressuring Boardman but BTCC debutant, Jeff Smith, collided with the Pinkney Motorsport driver which again ended his race early.

“That’s the second time in the BTCC that I have been knocked off at that corner by a driver named Smith,” David said afterwards. “It’s an annoying way to finish the day after the way the guys worked to get the car out for the final race and even more annoying that Boardman retired just after me as my car was quick; he’d just been holding me up.

“The car was good in the first race but in the second, I just got onto the marbles and there is no margin for error here. I didn’t think we’d be back out for the final race and it’s poor reward for the guys that that was the way it ended.”

Photo Credit: PSP Images

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.