Niall Murray didn’t have the weekend he hoped for in the latest rounds of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Knockhill.
Heading into the weekend, he hoped to maintain his momentum in the championship battle after a double podium last time out at Snetterton and pick up at least one race win.
Murray produced a strong performance in qualifying, but in a close session he could only take a pair of second row grid slots, albeit only 0.2s off pole.
The Douglas Motorsport driver got up to third early on in the opening race, but struggling with rear end grip, he eventually slipped to a finish of fourth.
Race two saw him benefit from a spin from championship rival Sennan Fielding on the opening lap to slot into second. Around 3 seconds behind fellow title contender Charlie Robertson in the lead, a determined Murray went on a charge, closing on the leader lap after lap, smashing the lap record in the process. A slight mistake on lap nine saw him run wide and end his chances of winning, Murray settling for second ahead of team-mate Andrew Watson.
“The weekend didn’t start the best for us, as I made a big mistake in qualifying which cost me my first pole position in the series,” said Murray. “In race one I had to drive a careful race as the back of the car was like a MkII Escort, wanting to step out at a moment’s notice! However I was confident in my dry weather pace and luckily we got the conditions we needed in race two to almost take my fifth win of the year but another small mistake forced me to take second. Now just four points off the lead in the championship we need to start picking up wins again, however I’m confident that this shouldn’t be a problem as the next three circuits in the championship were my strongest last year.”
