Dan Rowbottom “reminded how hard this championship is”

Dan Rowbottom admitted that his Knockhill weekend was a reminder of “how hard this championship is” after the Team Dynamics driver had to settle for a single top ten finish from the latest rounds of the BTCC season.

Rowbotton headed for Scotland on the back of a strong weekend at Oulton Park, where he secured his first win in the series at the wheel of his Honda Civic Type R.

A tricky qualifying session would see Rowbotton post the 19th quickest time but managed to race his way to 15th place in race one despite the additional ballast on his car and the fact that he was running the slower medium compound tyre.

Forced to take a trip across the gravel in race two to avoid a spinning Adam Morgan on the opening lap, Rowbottom dropped to the back of the field but was able to fight back to 18th place, and then rounded out the the weekend with tenth in race three – dropping him to seventh in the championship standings.

“Well that just wasn’t my weekend and I couldn’t quite get the car hooked up the way I needed it,” he said. “Once the weight came out of the car it became much more compliant but it was really tough in race one and race two was frustrating because I had the choice of either taking to the grass or collecting Adam and I went for the safer option!

“That dropped me to last but getting back up to 18th was a blast and it was really good to race hard in the final race to make progress into the top ten. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get better points but it is a reminder of how hard this championship is so we move on to Thruxton and aim for wins and podiums there as well.”