Tony Hughes is pleased with how the Knockhill weekend went for team despite missing rounds 19, 20 and 21 of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship.
Business commitments meant that Hughes missed the trip to Scotland and in his place came Paul O’Neill and the fans favourite secured the best results for the time with a brace of sixth place finishes and a fourth in the second race of the weekend.
“It’s fantastic, Paul has done us all proud, I don’t think even he had dreamed of three results as good as this” Tony joked; “I’m glad he brought the car back in one piece. It was a little worrying, letting him get his Liverpudlian mitts on it, that I might never see it again!”
O’Neill started the weekend by going fourth fastest in the opening Free Practice session and he was seventh in the second session.
Qualifying saw the rain come and O’Neill finished seventh fastest, having seen his fastest lap of the session compromised due to the red flags which came out.
“I was on a flying lap right at the end of the session as the red flags came out, the split times showed we’d done enough for 4th place, I’m gutted, but we’ve got the pace so let’s see what tomorrow brings,” O’Neill commented.
Round 19 saw the race have a lengthy Safety Car period due to the Dynojet Toyota of Frank Wrathall losing an engine. Running fourth at the top, ‘Owy’ dropped down the order to sixth at the flag.
He lined up sixth for the second race but was able to work his way up the order to secure a fourth place finish in the #29 Speedworks Motorsport car, the best result for the team in the BTCC.
This left him seventh for the final race and with success ballast on board but O’Neill was able to secure his third top six finish of the day after moving ahead of Aron Smith in the Redstone Racing Ford Focus.
“The Toyota was brilliant and the race [one] was great fun. I didn’t think that I would be up to fourth straight away, although I knew there would be carnage.” Enthused Paul.
“Sixth and fourth – I would have bitten your hand off and chewed it if you’d offered me that before the weekend.”
Next up is a trip to Northamptonshire and the Rockingham Motor Speedway over the 22/23 September and Hughes returns to the car for the eighth round of the season.