Teenage racer Will Aspin endured a tough weekend as the Porsche Carrera Cup GB visited Scotland for rounds seven and eight of the season, with a fifth place the best result he could salvage after contact eliminated him from the opening contest.

Having travelled to the 1.3-mile Knockhill circuit for an official test on the Wednesday ahead of the meeting, the Florence-based racer found it difficult to bring all the elements together to set a quick lap time in Saturday’s closely fought 30-minute qualifying session.

A spin on what would have been his quickest lap showed how hard he was pushing but resulted in him having to pit for fresh rubber. The session was then interrupted by two red flags, the second ending qualifying early, which meant Will wasn’t able to set a time representative of his abilities.

Race one got underway early on Sunday morning but was marred by a start line incident involving five cars, one of which was Will’s. Matthew Graham was slow off the line and was a sitting duck as the rest of the pack came charging over the brow of the hill at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. Team Parker Racing team-mate Ryan Ratcliffe made contact with Graham, setting off a chain reaction. Will unfortunately caught the aftermath, not damaging his car as much as others, but significant enough to force his retirement from the 32-lap contest.

Starting race two from the back of the Pro-Am class, Will drove consistently to get to the finish and secure championship points. He was quick off the line gaining a place but ran wide at the chicane on lap 12 and had to relinquish it to team-mate Charles Bateman. After that, he wasn’t able to make much forward progress, knowing that it was not worth risking contact, crossing the line fifth.

Will now only has a few days to reflect on the result as he will be making a guest appearance in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux series at the historic TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands. He will partner 2020 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion and driver coach Harry King, knowing it will be a good opportunity to gain further mileage, challenge himself on a new circuit, and learn from one of the quickest Porsche one-make racing drivers on the planet.

Will Aspin

“Free practice was good, and we were getting faster and faster, but we got to the point where we struggled to hook up a lap. We worked on that for qualifying and when we were on a lap which would have probably been pole in Pro-Am, we span at the chicane, so we lost out. We went out on the second set of new tyres, but we didn't go any faster.

“It's a difficult one because so many things disrupted qualifying. It wasn't just the red flags, there was the spin and then losing my head a bit. I managed to calm myself down, but it is quite hard to get back in the groove and around Knockhill you have to be in the groove to be fast, so with that many pauses to the session you just can't get a rhythm.

"In race one, we just had an incident at the start, where Matthew Graham was slow away and there was a massive backlog of other drivers, which we were unluckily to get caught up in. Thankfully there wasn't as much damage to the car as others and I've got to thank Team Parker Racing for doing such a great job to get the car fixed in time for race two.

"I had a good start for the second race, but it was just a bit messy from my side, and that's why we weren’t able to make much progress. I guess it was many things, a bit of experience from my side as it's still my first year driving in the car. I'm still learning and it's quite a hard car to master. It's a frustrating track because you can't race closely around it, especially with these cars being so big and so powerful, so we need wider, longer circuits.

"I'm really looking forward to going to Assen and racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux next weekend. I think it's going to be great and it will be good to work with the Parker Revs Motorsport team out there. It’s going to be a great opportunity for me to be team-mate with Harry, hopefully I can try and chase him down, and the outcome will be that I will become more comfortable in the car and gain more confidence."