Chris Smiley targeting strong points from race day

Chris Smiley says he is confident of scoring strong points on race day after his best qualifying result of the BTCC season to date at Knockhill.

The EXCELR8 driver was on the pace across Saturday, topping the times in free practice at the wheel of his Hyundai i30 Fastback N and then taking third on the grid in qualifying.

The Northern Irishman left it late to secure his best time in the session as he split the Hondas of Senna Proctor and Josh Cook, and will now look to fight for his first silverware of the season on race day.

“We’ve been up there all day,” he said. “Qualifying was a bit messy, but to be on the second row is good and anything could happen tomorrow, but we’re in a good place.

“Weight makes a difference here so the fact we are light has helped, but you have to get the lap in and I feel we have a good chance to make up points.

“The car has moved on a lot since last season but its just taken me a while to adapt to the new set-up on the car. It’s starting to show now in terms of the pace and we need a day of strong points. I’ll certainly take anything beyond that.”