McCaughan Masterclass Highlight Of Knockhill Drama - RTA Round 6 Review

By Evan Dalton for RTA Virtual Motorsport


Photo by A.I Dylan McClements 

Brandon McCaughan took victory in the Motorsport.ie RTA BTCC for a second consecutive week with a defensive performance for the ages at Knockhill. 


The Ballycastle native took the feature race win after both Dan Mould and Ronan Doherty took race victories earlier on in the evening. 


Knockhill is one of the most difficult circuits on the calendar, and was always predicted to be a difficult evening for drivers with harsh kerbs, lots of off track adventures and not a vast amount of overtaking zones. Doherty took a crucial pole position with championship rival Mould alongside him. 


Heat 1 

Doherty nailed the bite point and launched his Hyundai off the line to take a commanding lead extremely early on. 


Not everyone got away as well, and first lap contact was made between Darragh Halley, Kevin Joyce and Conor Melia before the first corner. Contact was made between Halley and Joyce, sliding into the path of Melia. The initial two had to return to the pits, with Melia getting away with it for the most part. His race was still severely hampered. 


Doherty scampered away to a lead of just over a second and looked in control, however, a couple quick mistakes and that gap was rapidly closed down by Mould. In the blink of an eye, Doherty made another mistake, running wide and allowing Mould through. 


Despite a late race effort, championship leader Doherty couldn’t regain the lead, gifting Mould the race victory. Wayne Douglas drove home in a lonely third to round out the podium.


Heat 2 

Despite the opening lap incident, Heat 1 defied all expectations of chaos and was a rather calm affair. Thankfully for the sake of journalism, the rest of the evening didn’t follow this theme. 


Doherty once again was quickest off the line and challenged Mould into turn one, getting alongside through the famous ‘Dufus Dip.’ Douglas also fancied his chances, and launched his car down the inside into turn three. Doherty was hit off into the gravel and did extremely well to only drop to third. 


The weekly top ten regulars of Jordan Kelly, Robbie Callaghan, Evan Walsh, Peter McCann and finally McCaughan all went to battle in the opening phases in an ultra entertaining fight. It was squeaky clean, but the same couldn’t be said for a bit further back. 


More contact was made between Joyce and Halley, leading to more damage. They aren’t RTA’s most familiar stewards room duo however, as Jamal Ghandour and Emma Dempsey made more contact. They have channeled their inner ‘Ross and Rachel’ and turned their weekly petty fights into prime time TV entertainment. 


With just minutes left on the clock, Doherty got a great run on race leader Mould into the final corner. He went for a move on the inside, and contact was made, Doherty not at fault however. Mould had a half spin, and that allowed Doherty to run away up front and take his third race win of the season. Douglas once again finished in third.


Heat 3 

McCann and McCaughan lined up on the front row for the feature race, and both stayed in first and second on the opening lap. McCann eventually lost the lead to McCaughan a few laps later, and Kelly got past as well. 


Mould found himself on the back of the leading pair about five minutes into the race, and started his attack. Kelly defended vigorously, taking the inside line through every corner, but crucially stayed in front.


The Donegal man acted as a rear gunner for McCaughan, and they worked well together. Mould could not find a way past. Eventually, a collision was caused as Mould carried too much speed into the final corner, spinning Kelly into the grass and out of contention for the second consecutive week. 


McCaughan didn’t let this phase him. He took what we saw work for Kelly and utilised it for his own benefit. Mould could not find a way past. McCaughan in the last few laps had almost the entire grid parked up behind him, but with the tight nature of Knockhill, he persevered and took his second feature race win in the same number of weeks. 


Crucially, Mould did not even get second, losing it to Douglas on the last lap. Doherty also lost a position to Oscar Mangan. They came home fourth and fifth. 


Now at the business end of the championship, things get very interesting. Less than thirty points separate the top three with two races to go. The concluding weeks of this fabulous season can be viewed, starting with Silverstone next Tuesday at 9pm on GantryTV.


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