Harpenden racer overcomes first race retirement

HARPENDEN racer David Pinkney notched his sixth top 10 finish of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season after overcoming a poor start to race day at Snetterton.

Pinkney qualified in 14th place at the high-speed Norfolk circuit but the opening race of the weekend ended in disappointment when he ran wide at Coram on the second lap and was forced to retire with damage to the front of his car.

That left Pinkney at the back of the field for the second race of the weekend, but after avoiding an incident ahead on the opening lap, the Harpenden racer produced a battling drive that saw him come through the field to finish just outside the points in 11th.

From the same position on the grid for the final race, David held 11th through the opening lap before moving into the points when leader James Nash went off the road at Riches. David then battled for position with Lea Wood before getting ahead of the Honda driver on lap four and held the place through to lap 12 when he ran wide on the exit of Sear to drop behind Paul O’Neill.

David remained 10th until the penultimate lap, closing onto the rear of Andy Neate and O’Neill ahead, and when O’Neill made a move on Neate’s BMW at the Esses, David saw the chance to follow him through as he went down the inside into the Bombhole to secure ninth place.

“We can’t complain with 11th and ninth after the way race one came to an end,” he reflected afterwards. “We know we still have work to do on the car as we are lacking front-end grip, which was partly to blame for what happened in the first race, but we bounced back with two solid races after that.

“Missing the test here didn’t help us and meant we were on the back foot back a bit coming into the weekend but we scored some points and in the last race, it was good to be involved in a fight on track. At the end of the day, we are here to race, and it gets the adrenaline running when you are involved in a battle like we were.”