Derek Palmer: Hard racing “nature of the midfield”

Derek Palmer welcomed the hard-fought racing at Snetterton, stating “that’s touring car racing” as he took his first points-scoring finish of his BTCC career.

The Support our Paras Racing driver qualified 23rd before taking 22nd in a calm race one, with the majority of the day’s action being saved for race two. Many drivers found themselves involved in contact with another car one way or another, allowing Palmer to pick his way through the field up to 13th.

A power steering issue, however, threatened his potential points-scoring position, dropping down to 16th. Luckily for Palmer, Tom Ingram slowed to a crawl on the final lap, allowing the Scot to cross the line in 15th and take his first points in the BTCC.

“It was good in the sense that it was carnage,” Palmer told TouringCarTimes. “A race of attrition to be fair. We had a power steering issue in race two and we still managed to make it work and get to the end which was good.”

Race three was not as successful for the Infiniti Q50 driver, receiving damage at the start as the cars caught up in the race two melee made their way back up the field.

“Race three was going well,” continued Palmer. “We had a good start, sort of in the middle of the pack. Made up a few places, lost a few places, and then it all kicked off. I ended up off, the steering was bent to the left and we ended up with a slow puncture which eventually went down.

“There were a lot of fast guys coming through, I’m not going to fight them hard but I’m not going to just jump out the way. It felt like I had a pretty hard hit from behind and I ended up collecting the guy that hit me which ended up doing more damage than good. But that’s the nature of that area of the midfield, 15th, 16th, that’s where the carnage is, that’s touring car racing, it is what it is.”

Looking ahead to a home round at Knockhill, a circuit that should suit the rear-wheel-drive of the Infiniti, Palmer is anticipating a good round in Scotland.

“I’m looking forward to Knockhill,” he said. “It’s a very different circuit to anywhere we go, it’ll be interesting to see how we get on.”