Ronan Pearson Shows Potential With Strong Donington Display
Ronan Pearson showed his front-running potential in fine style at Donington Park as his second season in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship got underway.
The Kelty-based racer returns to Britain’s premier racing series this year having extended his team with the EXCELR8-run Team Bristol Street Motors outfit, with the youngster flying the flag for the Scottish Macklin Motors brand.
Ronan headed into round one boosted by a positive pre-season testing programme that had included a pace-setting performance at Croft, and he carried that speed into the weekend with a star showing in the first of the BTCC’s new ‘Quick Six’ qualifying sessions.
Having earlier enjoyed two productive free practice sessions, Ronan would line up in the first group for Q1, successfully making his way through to the second phase of the session with the fourth best time in tricky, drying conditions following a rain shower.
His final lap in Q2 would earn him a place in the six-driver shoot-out for pole, with fifth on the grid marking a new personal best to provide an additional boost going into race day.
Heavy overnight rain provided a fresh challenge on Sunday, and resulted in racing being delayed until after lunch as circuit workers battled to clear standing water from the track surface, with Ronan taking his place on the third row of the grid.
After a long safety car period as a result of a first lap incident, Ronan ran in a strong fifth place throughout the race as he kept pace with four-time champion Colin Turkington to secure a solid haul of points from the opening race of the new campaign.
Although he slipped to sixth at the start of race two, a similar result was very much on the cards in now dry conditions later in the afternoon, with Ronan locked firmly onto the tail of Turkington’s BMW in the battle for position.
Unfortunately, a power-steering issue would see him run off-track at Coppice and - having navigated the near-flooded grass - resulted in an unscheduled trip into the pits. The team was able to resolve the issue and get Ronan back on track where he would go on to set a new, lap record fastest lap, albeit a lap down and outside the points in 17th place.
Starting race three from the same position, Ronan jumped up three spots into the points on the opening lap but a recurrence of the power-steering issue on lap two ultimately forced him to bring his Hyundai i30 Fastback N into the pits to retire.
Despite the obvious disappointment of missing out on three potential top six finishes, there were still plenty of positives to take away from the weekend, with Ronan sitting third in the early season Jack Sears Trophy standings ahead of round two at Brands Hatch.
“I could be downbeat after the way race day panned out but I know that the problem we had was completely outside our control and if we put that to one side, it was incredible,” he said. “After pre-season testing, I felt confident we had a good car going into the weekend but you never know what everyone else has been doing over the winter, so to come out in qualifying and score P5 on the grid was great; the car was mega.
“The rain delays were difficult on race day but when we finally got out there on track, I think I drove the best I have driven. I had so much confidence in the car and was leaving nothing on the table, and to be battling with someone like Colin Turkington because I was there on merit was an amazing feeling.
“Of course it’s a shame that an issue then hampered us in races two and three, but even then I showed my pace with a fastest lap so there is so much I can take away from this weekend as we look towards the rest of the season.
“I genuinely feel I’m in a fantastic position to have a really strong year, and hopefully qualifying and the opening race this weekend is just the start.”
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