Knockhill celebrates 40 years 22 | 08 | 2014
BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP leader Colin Turkington plans to spoil the party at Knockhill this weekend as the Fife track marks two important anniversaries.
Not only is it the 40th anniversary of the circuit itself — which has evolved from essentially a muddy track in a sheep field to one of the best-equipped facilities in the UK — but it's also 50 years since Jim Clark won the BTCC.
Driving his Lotus Cortina, the legendary double Formula One world champ from Kilmany in Fife dominated the 1964 touring car championship.
"It's a great coincidence that we have these two landmarks in the same year," Knockhill owner Derek Butcher explained, "and we're marking the occasions by having six of Jim's race cars here at the circuit over the weekend as the centrepoint of a fantastic exhibition.
"From Knockhll's perspective, there have been many changes and the facilities are now completely unrecognisable to what they were like when I bought the circuit."
Local farmer Tom Kinnaird originally created the track by combining a couple of service roads and a disused rail line in the hills overlooking the Firth of Forth, and ran it for 10 years.
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Butcher — himself a keen motorcycle racer — bought it when he sold his company, Fife Alarm Services. And the rest, as they say, is history.
But that dramatically underplays the work and commitment Butcher and his family — the circuit is now run my his daughter, Knockhill MD Jillian, who in turn is married to 2012 BTCC champ Gordon Shedden, himself the new business development manager — have undertaken.
In the last 12 months alone, the circuit has invested in excess of £100,000 further improving the facilities.
"To be honest, it was a hell-hole for 10 years," Butcher laughed, "but I just knuckled down, thought about the future and got on with it. There's no denying it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride early on."
An indication of how dramatically the circuit, and the business has developed is encapsulated in the fact that in Butcher's first year it ran 14 events: this year it will hit 300.
And this weekend's is the Blue Riband event of the season, the annual return of the BTCC, Britain's fastest and most popular race series.
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Shedden enters enters Sunday's triple-header just 23-points adrift of the BMW of championship leader and 2009 champ Colin Turkington, the Irishman himself a former Knockhill race instructor during his time at Stirling University.
But it's the 35-year-old from Dalgety Bay, who this year has swapped his Honda Civic hatchback for a Civic estate, who the majority of the packed grandstands will be cheering for.
And Shedden knows he has a big opportunity to close the gap on Turkington, who has to deal with an eight-place grid penalty issued following a clash last time out at Snetterton.
"Obviously it's unfortunate that Colin has to serve a penalty, but I have to make sure I use his misfortune to my maximum advantage this weekend," Shedden said.
"Qualifying at any race weekend is important, but for me it's crucial I qualify well on Saturday. I have to make sure I can maximise my performance, and that of the car and make sure we're either on pole, or at least on the front row.
"I'm taking nothing for granted. This weekend, like every BTCC weekend, is going to be tough: the competition's fierce. But believe me, I'll be doing everything I can to give the crowd something to cheer."
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Jim McGill