RACE ace Ronan Pearson scored three points finishes at Oulton Park in the latest round of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship but it was very much a ‘what might have been’ weekend.

The Dunfermline-based driver, originally from Kelty, admitted to "frustration" as heads into the summer break with a variety of issues hampering his podium chances at the Cheshire track.

Pearson said: “The positive is that we had the pace and I was able to make some really good overtakes at a circuit where it isn’t easy to pass.

"People now know that if they see me in their mirrors, they need to be on their guard because I’ll be trying to come through!

“The summer break will provide a time to reset and I can look ahead to the season resuming knowing that the circuits to come are ones where I was strong last year.

"I’ve got a lot more experience under my belt now and am a better driver than I was 12 months ago, so I’m confident there is plenty still to come this season.”

The opening practice session at Oulton Park went well, he was third quickest at the wheel of his Team Bristol Street Motors Hyundai i30 Fastback N.

Although not as quick in the second session, it left confidence high going into qualifying but a frustrating run in Q1 saw the youngster knocked out at the first stage and left to start the opening race from 15th on the grid.

Electing to run the slower hard tyre first, Pearson suffered a nightmare start when electrical gremlins held him up in the opening race before he launched an impressive comeback through the field to finish inside the points in 13th spot - setting the second quickest lap amongst those running the harder rubber.

Now on the soft tyre in race two, he was in the wars early on when he was forced to run off track at turn one to avoid a spinning car, which then affected the handling of the car.

Despite dropping outside the points, the Kelty native showed his overtaking talents to fight his way back up to 13th place to salvage more points.

Post race, he was promoted to 12th due to a penalty for one of his rivals.

On course for a possible top 10 finish in the weekend finale, a mistake saw him run wide and slip back down the order to sit in 15th place at half-way.

Undeterred, Pearson fought his way back to cross the line and take 11th spot, with the points from the weekend meaning he is now only four shy of his total for the entire 2023 season.

He looked back and said: “I’ll put my hands up that I didn’t get the best out of the car in qualifying and should have done better.

"It put me on the back foot a bit going into Sunday but I knew we had a strong race car to work with.

“Race day was hard with the heat in the car and the fact that there were various things outside my control that hampered my chances.

"The issue at the start of race one was frustrating when you consider the pace we then showed on the hard tyre, and then race two was affected by having to go off track on the first lap, as the car didn’t feel good after that.

“I think we could have been in the top eight in the finale without me dropping a wheel on the grass and whilst we’ve scored results I would have been delighted with last season, I want more this time around."