Michael Doyle declared himself a happy man at
Brands Hatch after making his debut in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at the Kent circuit.
The Clio Cup graduate went into the weekend without any pre-season testing in his BTC-spec Honda Civic Type-R, with the team only taking delivery of the engine for the car on arrival at the circuit.
It left a day of hard work on Friday before the Scot hit the track for the first time during the second free practice session, although power steering issues left him without a lap at racing speed under his belt prior to qualifying.
A spin during the session left him at the back of the grid for race one where a mid-race pit-stop meant he wasn't classified in the results, but race two saw him finish in a solid 18th place – ahead of both John George and Alan Taylor despite an early trip off track at Graham Hill Bend.
However, the final race of the day saw Doyle secure his best result of 15th despite suffering from a misfire and a gear issue that left him unable to change down through the gearbox, with his quickest lap still being little more than a second slower than reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi.
“We started at the back and could only go forward,” he said, “but we made progress in every race and hats off to the boys considering that we only had limited time to work on the car before the weekend and only had limited spares.
“Coming into the weekend, we said we'd love to get into the top 15 and if I got to within a second and a half of the quick boys, we'd be over the moon. In the third race we did that. In race two I got a good start and should have been further up but a cold tyre error meant I went off at Graham Hill. But you learn from mistakes and I'll know next time that I need to watch the cold tyres! The team is new to the BTCC and hasn't worked on the car at all over the winter before being drafted in in the last two weeks when we realised we would be racing.
