Harpenden racer David Pinkney had hoped to enter the BTCC’s summer break on a high, but encountered engine issues on his Vauxhall Vectra throughout race day in the North East which ultimately meant he failed to see the chequered flag in any of the three races



David had qualified 14th on the grid for race one – just three-tenths of a second away from the top ten – but his hopes of battling into the points came to an early end when the engine on his car expired in a huge cloud of smoke on just the fourth lap.

While the team was forced to miss race two while the engine in the Vectra was changed, David was able to line up on the grid for race three but debris thrown up from the circuit damaged the radiator and caused the engine to overheat just five laps in – bringing a tough weekend to an early conclusion.

“We’ve had a few days to reflect on Croft and we are thoroughly disappointed with how the weekend panned out,” Pinkney Motorsport team manager Andrew Dean said. “After the pace we showed in practice we were confident of scoring points on race day, but obviously it wasn’t meant to be.

“When you are involved in the development of a new engine, there may well be problems along the way, but it is frustrating when you have bad luck to contend with as well. The second problem was poor reward for the guys who had worked so hard to put the new engine in the car.

“There is a positive to take away from the weekend, at least Andy Jordan’s victory in the final race has shown the pace and potential of the Vectra and the NGTC engine. There is a long break before Snetterton for us to work with Swindon and to regroup for the second half of the year.”