After a fine showing in free practice, Jeff Smith hopes to be again up at the front in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s qualifying session at Knockhill.
The Eurotech Racing man held the top spot for much of the 40-minute second practice session of the day, ending second behind Gordon Shedden‘s newer Civic Type-R Honda before enduring an off at the chicane that caused a red flag a lap later.
Smith has positive memories of the Fife circuit in his career, including a podium finish in BTCC with the Eurotech squad back in 2012.
Speaking to The Checkered Flag afterwards, Smith said: “The time in the car’s always been there, but the time in me hasn’t. With Knockhill it’s a bit of a shorter lap so I can focus more on the corners.
“I’ve always gone pretty well here and I just managed to string a lap together. “We just had a look and we could have gone three tenths quicker there’s even more in it yet.”
The performance from practice gives Smith confidence for the coming qualifying session, admitting that a strong grid position is very much in the pipeline.
“It’d be really good if we can [continue the pace all weekend],” continued Smith. “Race pace has been really good all season, we just haven’t qualified in the right place.
“If we can qualify in the right place we will be up there for sure. To be honest it’ll be a bit of a lottery, I had a good lap, some of the guys have really struggled to get a clear lap with 28 cars out there it’s pretty damn busy, so it will be a bit of a lottery in quali.”