26th April 2009 - Knockhill

Handy Motorsport driver Simon Belcher made the journey north of the border to Knockhill for the 1^st round of the SMRC Legends Cars Championship and returned with third overall following a very successful weekend at the Scottish circuit.

In the first of the two heats, after starting from 8^th on the grid Simon made progress through the field to lead by the third lap and held the lead until 2 laps from the end, despite having a problem with his brakes, he was involved in a dash to the line with Ross Marshall who took 1^st place by 6/1000’s of a second.

The second heat was run in torrential rain, and with the team using the weekend to test some new settings Simon made the decision not to take any unnecessary risks, finishing the race in a very creditable 4^th position.

In the final Simon started from the back of the grid and made great progress to be in 4^th place by lap 3 when he was tagged in the Real Radio Hairpin and spun, eventually rejoining the field in 14^th position. With work to do again Simon set about making his way through the field again before finally finishing in 5^th position, just 7 seconds behind the winner.

The return journey south was made all the easier as they returned with 3^rd position overall in the championship behind leader ‘Burnett Motorsports’ Ross Marshall & former Scottish champion Ben Mason.

With a very successful weekend behind them Simon said “Overall I am very pleased with the progress we have made this weekend, however I was disappointed with 5^th in the final as I felt that we had the pace to win the race had I not been tagged at the hairpin”.

The Scottish championship had a strong entry of 29 cars for the opening round, Simon plans to do several rounds on the championship alongside his main National Championship program.