PSCGB: Podium finish for Aimee Watts at Knockhill
- LIAM REDFORD
- 2 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Aimee Watts returned to the RS Am class podium in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain with the Clean Racing driver showing excellent pace in mixed conditions at Knockhill, while consistently battling among the more experienced RS Pro competitors.
Aimee Watts returned to the RS Am class podium in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain with the Clean Racing driver showing excellent pace in mixed conditions at Knockhill, while consistently battling among the more experienced RS Pro competitors.
Returning from the summer break looking to build upon an excellent start to the season, Watts was targeting a maiden victory in the RS Am class. After the first two rounds of the campaign, Watts sat in fourth position within the RS Am class standings with a trio of podium finishes to her name. After two trips to the rostrum last time out at Oulton Park, Watts was displaying speed to challenge many of the RS Pro class competitors as she continues to gain confidence with each outing.
Prior to the weekend getting underway, the drivers participated in an official test session which was held on Wednesday. Watts showed superb pace as her fastest time of a 51.045 placed her in sixth position overall, second within the RS Am class and just four thousandths of a second away from class rival Daniel Lewis.
The drivers returned to Knockhill on Friday to take part in two free practice sessions ahead of the competitive action beginning on Saturday. It was another positive day for the Clean Racing driver who completed a further 76 laps while setting a quickest time of a 50.953. This time saw Watts end the day in third position within the RS Am class, but just one tenth of a second away from class pacesetter Daniel Lewis.
Saturday’s action began with qualifying as the drivers aimed to secure a strong starting position. It was a challenging start to the session for Watts who sat in fifth position within the RS Am class at the halfway point. Nonetheless, Aimee’s pace through the final sector was especially strong and this enabled her to briefly move up to third position with just five minutes remaining. Improvements continued to be made by her rivals and as a result, Watts ended qualifying in fifth position within class after setting a quickest time of a 51.231.
The opening race at Knockhill was held on Saturday afternoon with Watts aiming to fight through to a podium finish. The grid positions were set by the results from qualifying with Aimee lining up from 15th on the grid, fifth in the RS Am class. The Clean Racing driver made a great start as she immediately gained two overall positions on the first lap, while Watts moved up to third in the RS Am class.
On lap two, Watts briefly gained one further position after an issue for Felix Livesey, before Aimee lost out to class rival Reece Somerfield. The battles in the RS Am class remained extremely close in the opening stags with Watts settling into 13th position overall, fourth in the RS Am class.
After getting into her rhythm, Watts began to apply pressure to Somerfield and by the end of lap six, she was just a quarter of a second behind her rival. As the race approached halfway, Watts remained in fourth position within the RS Am class, however she was looking confident in pursuit of another podium result.
As the drivers began lap 13, Watts ran side-by-side with Somerfield as the drivers approached turn one with the Breakell Racing driver maintaining his position. After Somerfield was forced to defend, this allowed both Matthew Briers and Dean Burden to close in with a four-way battle for the final spot on the podium emerging.
On lap 16, Watts again drew level with Somerfield, however her experienced rival protected his position well. Nonetheless, Watts continued to apply pressure and after getting another superb run out of the final hairpin on lap 18, she again placed her Clean Racing machine alongside as the drivers approached the first turn. For a third time, Somerfield held the final spot of the podium with less than five laps remaining.
This close battle allowed Burden to close in and after he passed Briers, the Toro Verde GT driver was one of the fastest RS Am drivers on track. However, Burden had received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits and after resisting some brief pressure, Watts opened out a small gap to her rival.
As a result, this allowed her to mount one final challenge on Somerfield. Following a superb move on the penultimate lap of the race, her pressure paid off as she overtook Somerfield and held on to score a hard-earned podium finish. Watts crossed the line in 12th position overall, third in the RS Am class, to secure her fourth podium result of the season.
Race two on Sunday morning brought an additional challenge with cold and wet conditions at Knockhill. Therefore, all the drivers fitted the grooved tyres and were set for a race of discovery with limited wet weather running during the season to date. The grid positions were based upon the second fastest times set in qualifying and this meant that Watts lined up from 15th on the overall grid, fifth within the RS Am class.
The Clean Racing driver made a good start as Watts overtook Matthew Briers to move into 14th position overall, fourth in class. After running side-by-side with Briers to start lap two, Watts held her ground and immediately caught her fellow RS Am class rivals who were fighting for the podium spots.
After the battle for the RS Am class lead intensified, this saw RS Pro class drivers Chris Bingham and Lydia Walmsley shuffled down the order with Watts now applying pressure to Walmsley ahead. On lap six, the Clean Racing teammates swapped positions with Watts moving up to 13th position overall.
The following lap saw Watts overtake Bingham with Aimee displaying excellent speed as she targeted another trip to the rostrum. A personal best time on lap eight saw the Clean Racing driver lap faster than anyone in the RS Am class and she replicated this feat on the following tour.
Although she now had a three second gap to bridge to the podium places, Watts was continuing to cut the deficit and the margin was reduced further on lap 11 when the safety car was deployed. With Max Watt stranded out on circuit, his car required recovery with Watts now up to 11th position overall, while she remained fourth in the RS Am class.
The race resumed on lap 16 and it was a chaotic restart with multiple position changes before the start/finish line. Watts lost out to Walmsley, however she held fourth position in class while she aimed to fight back in the closing stages. Watts continued to display excellent pace in the final laps and this allowed her to pass Bingham to take the chequered flag in 12th position overall, fourth in the RS Am class.
Conditions were dry for the final race of the weekend and with the grid positions based upon the results of race two, Watts lined up from 12th overall, fourth in the RS Am class. As the lights went out, Watts made a good start and challenged teammate Walmsley through the opening turns.
It was a clean first lap for Watts who held fourth in the RS Am class as the race settled into a rhythm. On lap three, Watts began to challenge Walmsley and following a superb move around the outside of turn one, Aimee claimed 11th position overall. Watts was now defending from another RS Pro class machine, this time Chris Bingham, with the Raceworks Motorsport driver applying significant pressure to the Clean Racing machine.
Meanwhile, Watts was also keen to move forward and she was involved in a fantastic three-way battle for the lead with Reece Somerfield defending smartly from both Watts and Daniel Lewis. On lap eight, Watts had a small moment on the exit of turn one and this lost her momentum as she slipped behind Bingham, Walmsley and teammate Max Watt.
Despite competing in the RS Pro class, Watts continued to battle teammate Watt with the Clean Racing pair trading positions during the middle portion of the race. After briefly clearing Watt, Watts ran her fastest lap of the race on lap 10 with a 51.842.
Three laps later, Watt was back ahead and after he began to battle Bingham, Watts overtook her teammate at the hairpin before he fought back once again. As the race entered the closing stages, the midfield battles continued to intensify and James Seale overtook Watts on lap 20.
After clearing Watt once more on lap 22, Watts spun into the gravel trap at the chicane and this ended her race prematurely. It was an unfortunate finish to the weekend for Watts who showed excellent speed in all conditions at Knockhill.
Nonetheless, Watts added to her podium tally in the RS Am class with her race pace being a particular highlight. The Clean Racing driver will now be targeting improvements in qualifying as she continues to edge closer to her maiden victory in the series.
Watts will be aiming for the top step of the podium when Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain returns at Croft on the weekend of 5th/6th September.
