Doyle reflects on 'appalling' home event.

Micky Doyle endured arguably his most frustrating weekend of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season at Knockhill after the plucky Scot failed to finish any of the three races in Scotland.

The BTCC rookie went into his home weekend hoping to put on a good show in front of the Scottish fans and qualified in 19th place at the wheel of his InTune Racing Honda Civic.

However, race day proved to be one to forget for Doyle, with an incident with Jason Hughes forcing him out of the opening race at the John R Weir chicane. While the team fixed the car for race two, issues with both the gearbox and radiator forced him to once again retire and when the gearbox gremlins then re-appeared in race three, he was unable to build on a fine start and wracked up a third DNF of the day.

"Results wise it was appalling - probably the worst weekend yet," Doyle reflected. "But full credit to the team, they worked their backsides off to get the car back out there each time. In race one, I locked up the rear brakes and went into Hughes and I hold my hands up to that one. It was my mistake and it wasn't intentional in any way.

"The car felt good in race two but we had a temperature warning light coming on and started to get gearbox issues coming down the gears so we had to come in. I got a good start in race three and was up to about 14th or 15th and the car was tremendous, but when I tried to get sixth gear there was nothing there. I was on the limiter and it would have damaged the engine, which wasn't a risk worth taking.

"Despite that, I've still got a smile on my face because of all the support I've had. My aim this year is to make a name for myself and we think we have done well to even get this far, despite disappointments like this."

Doyle now heads to Silverstone looking for his luck to change although he admitted he isn't the biggest fan of the National Circuit layout that will be used for the penultimate round of the year.

"I hate Silverstone - it's the most boring track I've ever driven on," he said, "although no disrespect meant to Silverstone there! I look forward to getting the weekend over as anyone can be quick there as it is all straights with a few corners. I'll probably be about eight seconds off the pace now I've sad that.

"It's not a challenging circuit, but I'm looking forward to Brands Hatch as we can see how much we have closed the gap over the season."