Mike Bushell endured another weekend to forget as the British Touring Car Championship visited Croft, with the AmD Tuning driver recording a sole finish in his Ford Focus.
The Tunbridge Wells racer was pleased with his performance in qualifying on his way to the 21st quickest time, but was forced to retire at the halfway stage of the opening race due to a shoulder injury, which recurred as a result of his crash at Thruxton.
After being cleared to return to action, Bushell then had an enjoyable run to 19th in race two from the back of the grid, but any aspirations of returning to the points in the final race of the weekend were quickly extinguished when his team discovered an engine issue.
Another scoreless weekend means that Bushell enters the mid-season break with just two points to his name following a penalty, and speaking after race three he told TouringCars.Net the tale of another frustrating outing.
“It’s been a real shame,” he reflected. “In race one we had problems lingering from Thruxton; where I hit the barrier there I had bruises all over my shoulder. I didn’t think too much of it but we’re quite close to the steering wheel and when we were coming into the hairpin, it was just at the wrong angle and it was making the joint clink; it was painful but we strapped it up.
“Race two I enjoyed; I made up 11 places if you think about it, having started dead last, it was good.
“But then unbeknownst to us there was a problem with the engine which ended our day.”
While the 25 year-old said he was disappointed to sit out race three, he and the team thought it had been in their best interests.
“It was a problem with the camshaft. We could have run it, but we didn’t see any point in blowing the engine – I’m not fighting for the championship so I can’t risk it.
“I was looking forward to it and I was gutted that I couldn’t carry on but it adds to another bad weekend in the year.”
And with the first half of his full rookie season in the championship over, Bushell admitted that he was hoping for a change of fortunes at the remaining five rounds.
“No comment,” he said, only half sarcastically. “It could be better.
“The first half is done, hopefully the second will be better.”