Ronan Pearson Battles Hard For Triple Score
Rising star Ronan Pearson produced a battling performance on track at Oulton Park to score three points finishes from the latest rounds of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season, although it was very much a ‘what might have been’ weekend.
The Scottish racer was looking to head into the summer break on a high and things started well in the opening practice session when he went third quickest at the wheel of his Macklin Motors-backed Hyundai i30 Fastback N.
Although not as quick in the second session, it left confidence high going into qualifying but a frustrating run in Q1 saw the youngster knocked out at the first stage and left to start the opening race from 15th on the grid.
Electing to run the slower hard tyre first, Ronan suffered a nightmare start when electrical gremlins saw the car bog down off the line in the opening race before he launched an impressive comeback through the field to finish inside the points in 13th spot - setting the second quickest lap amongst those running the harder rubber.
Post race, he would then be promoted up into twelfth due to a penalty for one of his rivals ahead.
Now on the soft tyre in race two, Ronan found himself in the wars early on when he was forced to run off track at turn one avoiding a spinning car, which then affected the handling of the car.
Despite dropping outside the points, Ronan once again showed that overtaking is possible around the tight and challenging circuit to fight his way back up to 13th place by the finish to salvage more points.
Ronan was on course for a possible top ten finish in the weekend finale in the early stages but a small mistake saw him run wide and slip back down the order to sit in 15th place at the half-way stage.
Undeterred however, Ronan again fought his way back to cross the line and take eleventh spot, with the points from the weekend meaning he is now only four shy of his total for the entire 2023 season.
“I’ll put my hands up that I didn’t get the best out of the car in qualifying and should have done better,” he said. “It put me on the back foot a bit going into Sunday but I knew we had a strong race car to work with.
“Race day was hard with the heat in the car and the fact that there were various things outside my control that hampered my chances. The issue at the start of race one was frustrating when you consider the pace we then showed on the hard tyre, and then race two was affected by having to go off track on the first lap, as the car didn’t feel good after that.
“I think we could have been in the top eight in the finale without me dropping a wheel on the grass and whilst we’ve scored results I would have been delighted with last season, I want more this time around.
“The positive is that we had the pace and I was able to make some really good overtakes at a circuit where it isn’t easy to pass. People now know that if they see me in their mirrors, they need to be on their guard because I’ll be trying to come through!
“The summer break will provide a time to reset and I can look ahead to the season resuming knowing that the circuits to come are ones where I was strong last year. I’ve got a lot more experience under my belt now and am a better driver than I was twelve months ago, so I’m confident there is plenty still to come this season.”
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