History was made at Knockhill last weekend as the Fife circuit hosted its first-ever night race meeting, welcoming back the Classic Sports Car Club north of the border for the first time since 2021.
Duncan Vincent and Adam Kindness took a popular home victory in the Modern night race, the Knockhill regulars putting their local knowledge to good use in wet conditions to come out on top in a safety car impacted 40-minute endurance bout under the lights.
Although the duo have turned hundreds of laps around the 1.3-mile venue, neither had any night-time experience of the track. Despite this, Kindness took pole position but lost out to the Caterham of siblings Mike and Tom Cantillon, who were later penalised 10 seconds for a jumped start.
Vincent then took over at the mandatory pitstop and reduced the deficit to Cantillon. A late safety car restart made sure of Kindness and Vincent’s victory; a dive to the inside of Duffus Dip with 10 minutes left gave the modified Mini Cooper a comfortable win, as Adam Brown’s Honda Integra snatched second in the closing laps.
In the Classic night race, the TVR Tuscan of Tony and Aston Blake took the victory as they headed their fellow father and son rivals Stewart Robb Sr and Jr (Morgan +8). The Blakes – who were missing fourth gear – made the most of a timely safety car to make their pitstop, with the race also ending under caution.
Tom Robinson took the win in Jaguar opener
Photo by: Jim Moir
Earlier in the daylight, the Jaguar Championship produced a pair of entertaining races, with Tom and Jack Robinson splitting the victories. The former led the way from pole in his XJ6 after younger brother Jack was sent to the back of the grid following a yellow-flag infringement in qualifying and duly built a 5s lead from the XJS of Colin Philpott. After the midway point, Philpott began to reduce the deficit to Robinson out front, while Jack Robinson made superb progress to take his XK8 to third.
The top four were reversed for race two, with Jack getting the better of polesitter Ieuan Spooner on lap one. Having bolted clear of the pack, the Robinsons battled each other, with Jack using the sleekness of his XK8 to take the win, and family bragging rights.
The Caterham of Jeremy Adams claimed a comfortable victory in the 40-minute Interseries endurance race, leading either side of the regulation pitstop to beat Russell Paterson’s Morgan by over 30s. Paterson had challenged Adams initially but fell back as the race wore on and settled for second as Mike and Tom Cantillon completed the podium from Wayne Armsden’s MK Cup by a mere tenth of a second.
Despite later missing out on the Classic night win, Stewart Robb picked up a pair of Morgan Challenge victories beating Paterson in each bout. It was a similarly dominant performance by John Kinmond in the Scottish Classic Sports & Saloon races, as he took a comfortable pair of wins aboard his iconic Rover SD1 V8.
Mark Campbell came out on top in the combined Swinging Sixties and Classic K contest at the wheel of his Triumph TR5, while David Robb prevailed in the Tin Tops and Turbo Tin Tops enduro in his Audi TT.
Robb’s Audi was among the victors in the daylight races
Photo by: Jim Moir
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– The Autosport.com Team
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