Chris Smiley confident of building on Rockingham success

Chris Smiley says he feels confident of building on his success at Rockingham after a strong qualifying performance ahead of the eighth meeting of the BTCC season at Knockhill.

Fresh from victory last time out, Smiley put his BTC Norlin-run Honda Civic Type-R fifth on the grid for the opening race in Scotland, showing strong pace throughout the session to end up on the third row of the grid.

Smiley had been the early pace setter after the red flag period caused by Bobby Thompson dropping oil and the Northern Irishman insisted that he could have been higher on the grid had it not been for that issue.

“I think if the Team HARD car hadn’t dropped oil we could have been higher up the grid but took me a few laps to get adjusted to the track after that and we also should have changed the brake bias a bit,” he said. “But I’m not going to make excuses as P5 is good for the team and the rain that is expected should work against the rear-wheel drive cars that are ahead of us on the grid.

“Regardless of whether we get rain or not, I feel we have good pace in the car and we have shown this season that we can be quick no matter what the conditions are doing. Come rain or shine, I see no reason why race day will be any different and I’m looking to push right at the front.”