Ant Whorton-Eales takes positives from disappointment

Ant Whorton-Eales insisted that there were plenty of positives to take away from the Knockhill weekend despite his first taste of leading a BTCC race ending in disappointment.

The AmDTuning.com driver had started the final race of the weekend from pole position having been promoted into tenth in race two when Josh Price was excluded for a yellow flag infringement.

Running on the soft compound tyre, the reigning Clio Cup UK champion fended off the Toyota of Tom Ingram through the opening lap but then dipped a wheel into the gravel at the chicane on lap two after his Audi snapped sideways on entry to the corner.

It started a chain of events that would see him take a hit in the rear from Rory Butcher’s Ford Focus, with a rubbing tyre forcing Whorton-Eales back into the pits.

Dropping off the lead lap, the 23-year-old would then go on to produce one of his strongest drives in the series to date as he posted the fourth fastest lap of the race – more than a second quicker than he had in either race or two.

“After the first lap when [Tom] Ingram made a move and backed out of it, I thought that we had the pace to run at the front and I’d pulled a small advantage heading towards the Chicane,” he said.

“As I went to turn in, the right rear just snapped out a little bit and I went into the corner sideways but I managed to catch it and just dipped a wheel into the gravel. Unfortunately, I lost momentum as a result and got a hit from behind which meant I had to pit or we’d have lost the tyre.

“To be honest, I was so angry about the fact that we’d missed out on a good result that when I went back out on track, I just absolutely nailed it and in a weird way, what happened has been a good thing as it showed me just how much how I can push the car.

“The pace we showed after rejoining was absolutely mega and I can take a lot of confidence from that into the races that are still to come.”