Pinkney: I didn't even have to time to say sh*t!

Dave Pinkney has his focus firmly on making a return to the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in time for the season finale at Thruxton following his high-speed accident at Brands Hatch.

The A-Tech driver found himself with nowhere to go when Matt Neal and Mat Jackson collided on the opening lap of race one and slammed into Neal's stricken Honda at more than 100mph.

It left Pinkney needing a visit to hospital, along with Neal, with the Luton Town chairman being left understandably sore afterwards.

"I'd had a good start and was flat out going up the hill," he said. "I was thinking of outbraking Tom Ferrier into Druids. But then suddenly Matt's car was there. I didn't even have time to say sh*t before I hit him. It was a massive shunt. I went from around 105mph to a complete stop in about ten feet. I'm told the impact was about 24G, which can't have done my insides any good.

"I'm not blaming Mat Jackson. He's just gone into the corner probably a bit over-anxious, put a wheel on the kerb and spun round. But there's no way I've got anything against him. He didn't mean to cause what happened."

With the car having been heavily damaged, Pinkney will miss Knockhill in two weeks time, which will also give the veteran extra time to recover himself before returning to the wheel.

"I'd like to be back for Thruxton," he said. "We've moved on so much with the Alfa since the start of the season, particularly with the suspension set-up, and we had a good run at Thruxton last time out. Let's see...

"Knockhill is out, though. There's no way we could repair the car in time and I'm hurting all over and will probably need a couple more weeks to recuperate fully. But I'd like to thank all the marshals and medical people who helped me yesterday and all the people who've passed on get well messages. The HANS device we wear around our necks also helped massively as well."