Rob Austin “frustrated” after promising Knockhill

Rob Austin was left frustrated after being unable to capitalise on the promising pace his Audi A4 showed throughout the Knockhill race weekend.

Austin took three top ten finishes around the 1.2 mile Scottish circuit, taking seventh in race one after a thrilling battle with Gordon Shedden, eventually losing out to the home town hero, before coming home in sixth and fifth in the final two races respectively.

Despite three of his strongest results, Austin felt there was more capable from the car, and cited bad luck getting in the way of a potential trip to the podium.

“My results were a bit frustrating,” Austin told TouringCarTimes. “Some bad luck and a couple of mistakes stopped what should’ve been some better results today I think. Certainly in race one I’d done the lap good enough for pole for race two but as I was coming out the hairpin and up the hill to finish it, the safety car came out, so that ballsed that up.

“Then I was stuck behind Mat Jackson and made a mistake so I lost my podium opportunity there. That one we seemed to lose a bit of the edge off the car. We seemed to struggle to get the front in, we had a big lockup on the first lap as well which didn’t help with that pattering away the whole race long.”

Although he was left to wonder what might have been, Austin was still delighted to return to the sharp end at a circuit that he particularly enjoys racing at.

“Overall I’m really happy with the weekend,” he said. “We don’t have the best base car this year but for whatever reason it always seems to work well here, and I love this track, it comes to me quite easily. It’s just nice to be able to race with the proper people again, from the back end of the top ten to just outside the top ten has been where I’ve mostly been racing this year, it seems, and there’s a lot of desperate people there. It’s a whole different world.”

Moving ahead to Rockingham, a circuit that will live fondly in the memories of Austin and his legions of devoted fans, the Rob Austin Racing man is hopeful he can continue his tradition of strong results, despite the car not necessarily being as suited to the Audi as Knockhill is.

“I actually prefer this circuit [Knockhill]and I think we’ve got a more competitive package at this circuit,” Austin explained. “But for some reason, whatever reason, we always struggle to put it together here. We’ve had a really quick car all day and no podiums. At Rockingham we’re not quite as quick but it comes to us so hopefully that tradition continues and get back on that podium.”

Austin was without his team-mate Hunter Abbott for the three races at Knockhill, having had to rush off home on the early hour of Sunday morning as his wife Susie for the birth of their first child, which was later revealed to be a baby boy.

“He’s called Rob, I’ve named him Rob, and I expect to be appointed as godfather duties in due course,” joked Austin. “But I’m most happy for Hunter this weekend. I’m really, really happy to have a new member in the team. Hunter’s a good guy and I’m really happy for him.”