For the second season in a row, Martyn Bell secured his best result of the season in the annual trip to Scotland for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
Bell headed to the picturesque
Knockhill circuit having scored one top ten finish this season at
Oulton Park but added to his points tally in the opening race of the weekend with his best result to date this year.
Despite feeling a little under the weather, and with his
BMW 320i still showing some of the after-effects of his accident at Brands Hatch two weeks ago, Bell qualified in 15th place on the grid and then set about improving his position during the opening 24 lap encounter.
A solid run saw him take the flag in tenth place, but with
Tom Onslow-Cole being excluded from the results post-race, he moved up to ninth to secure two welcome points towards his overall total. Unfortunately, the second race wouldn't go to plan with a spin at the John R Weir chicane dropping him to the rear of the field after an intriguing battle with Fiona Leggate's MG and the Honda of Alan Taylor.
In the final race, Bell was able to bring home another solid finish as he held off the challenge of Leggate for 13th, although he admitted afterwards that the weekend hadn't been the easiest of the season.
It's been quite a struggle really, he admitted. I've been a bit ill over the weekend and we haven't got the flatshift sorted out from
Brands Hatch, so I was driving with a gearbox like a road car again which we hadn't been expecting. So all things considered, I think we can go away from Scotland with mission accomplished. The circuit is fantastic, but the back end of the car was a bit loose and it was a handful to wrestle round this weekend.
