Ireland’s Árón Smith and Northern Ireland’s Andrew Watson both finished off the weekend’s racing at Snetterton in the UK with podium finishes.
Chrome Edition Restart Racing’s Árón Smith was fresh with confidence last weekend following a few weeks off from the British Touring Car Championship for the summer, and that confidence clearly shone through for the Irishman as he recorded a 1st place victory in his Volkswagen Passat CC at Snetterton.
Benefitting from a reverse grid draw for the second time this season, Árón found himself on pole position for the final race of the weekend. Árón faced a tough challenge throughout the race and a dive coming into the last corner on the penultimate lap from Motorbase’s Mat Jackson was the final attempt to steal the lead before Árón managed to take the chequered flag and secure his third BTCC career victory and the second for Warren Scott’s Team BMR.
Speaking after the race, Smith said: “I have never won in the dry in the BTCC so this win was a sweet one and I now feel I can conquer it all! Both Motorbase cars kept me honest and I tried to keep as much distance between us as possible. The team made it happen. I had a bit of an off earlier in the week testing and they turned it around and into a race winner – no other team could have done that.”
In other racing news from Snetterton, Northern Ireland’s Andrew Watson (pictured below) finished off the Ginetta GT SuperCup’s last race of the weekend in third position, putting him in third overall for the championship.
Race one on Sunday saw Watson get off to an impressive start, gaining two places in the first lap alone. A hard fought battle ensued and Watson finished the race in sixth.
A reverse grid then left Watson in P7, but the 19-year-old from Co. Tyrone moved through the grid and up into fourth place.
Meanwhile an ambitious overtake attempt saw championship leader Charlie Robertson, who had been in second place, run off the track, losing his position. This, in turn, allowed Watson to move up to third place, where he ended the race, providing him with a much-needed podium finish to safeguard his overall championship third position.
Speaking about the weekend’s racing, Watson said: “We fought hard for the podium in the last race. I really did enjoy that last race!
“It’s make or break time in the championship now, and we can still win it. There are no doubts there. We qualified on pole last year in Knockhill in our first year so we will be fighting for wins there in a couple of weeks!”
Main pic via Árón Smith – Facebook
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