RACING EXPOSURE :: Club level motorsport e-magazine

Stefan di Resta, the 22 year old brother of Sahara Force India Grand Prix star Paul, is to make his race debut this Sunday at Knockhill.

Stefan di Resta testing GPA mini Cooper at Knockhill

Stefan, who comes from Bathgate and works in the family property development business, will be racing the Grand Prix Adventures #6 Mini Cooper in the Celtic Speed Scottish Mini Cooper Cup. With three races scheduled, Stefan will be competing against 25 other Minis, including 4 lady racers, all of whom will be tackling the twists and turns of the challenging Knockhill circuit. 17 year old Lewis Grant from Aberdeen will also make his racing debut in the same event driving his Apex Tubulars backed Mini Cooper.

Lewis Grant Apex Tubulars Mini at Knockhill

GPA owner Kenny McLeod said “I am delighted to be playing a small part in Scottish motorsport history with Stefan driving the #6 GPA Mini resplendent with the McLeod tartan roof!” Stuart Gray Knockhill Events Director added “It will be great to see how Stefan gets on at Knockhill as it’s the same track that his brother Paul, his cousin Dario Franchitti, David Coulthard and Alan McNish all drove their first race cars.

A busy 14 race programme kicks off at 10am and features the Scottish Mini Cooper Cup, Scottish Classics, Legends, Formula Fords and Sports and Saloons in an action packed race day.

Fiona Kindness starts her first season of door to door racing, having successfully campaigned her Nissan Skyline in the UK Time Attack series for the past 3 years.

Fiona Kindess Nissan Skyline

Photos: John Stewart, Flatoutphotography

It’s evolution and revolution this year for drivers and cars on the 2010 SMRC race card.

Formula Ford will provide the open wheeled action with their usual close racing and sizeable grids. Last year’s champion, Rory Butcher, moving on to drive for the KTM XBow Team in the British GT Championship.

The Fiesta XR2 and ST championship is as popular as ever. The STs are looking forward to more cars on the grid this year with several cars being built in the off season and not to be outdone, the ageing but still popular XR2s are moving from Kumho to Yokohama tyres this year knocking a second off lap times in early testing.

The Classic Sports and Saloon category has the finest pre-1979 machinery competing. Making a true spectacle for classic car fans, grids are expected to feature a mix of motoring icons including Morgans, air cooled 911s, Lotus Elans and Europas, Alfas, Fords and even the odd Hilman Imp.

Sports and Saloons, the modern day counterpart, provides just as broad a spectrum of machinery. Last year we saw space framed 4WD Ford Focuses battle Lamborghini Gallardos, Caterfields wheel to wheel with Seat Cupras and even a Maserati Barchetta.

The Legends always have a large following and last year they had the largest grid by some margin. This year is expected to be no exception.

The Mini Cooper Cup always provides close racing action. This year the title race is wide open with last year’s champion, Kenny Thirlwall, moving on to Formula Ford and his sparring partner, Chris Knox, contending the national Mini Challenge series. Although we could see the odd appearance from Knoxy to keep everyone on their toes. The newcomers field in the Minis features 8 drivers (at the time of writing) contending for the new comers cup and also this year, there will be a womens trophy up for grabs.

New for 2010 is the Ginetta Juniors category with entries currently being invited.

Race dates and information is available on the SMRC website www.smrc-uk.co.uk. All classes this year have 6 rounds at Knockhill and 2 away rounds at various tracks in England including Croft and the Oulton Park GP circuit.

For those of you who have never been to Knockhill, it’s well worth the trip. There really is no circuit like it in the UK. Or if you catch us at one of our away rounds down south, be sure to say hi.

Malc (Mini Cooper Cup Car #5)

Text: Malcolm McNab