Crawley star Hand tries to take grip on Saloon championship at Knockhill

For most of Saturday’s qualifying session Hand looked set to secure pole for the opening race.

“Every time I came passed the pits my board said P1. I knew Lewis was closing, but then he pipped me with a couple of laps left, before the session was red flagged and I could respond,” said the Crawley teen.

He started the race well and went side by side with Saunders for a while.

“For the first two laps we were so close, but our battle let Alex Solley stay with us and he got me on the second lap,” he explained.

Although he grabbed back his second place a lap later, Saunders had already broken the tow.

“He got away particularly after a safety car period and I just spent the rest of my race trying to close the gap,” he added after taking the chequered flag 1.032 secs down, but 1.338 secs clear of Solley.

After racing anti-clockwise on Saturday, it was clockwise for Sunday’s racing, as Knockhill is the only UK circuit to run in both directions.

“We had a few issues with set-up and I couldn’t push for a good time,” he explained after qualifying third best for Sunday’s race, which left him starting directly behind Saunders.

It was a very close opening series of corners in the race and it was wet too.

“Alex went down my inside at McIntyre’s though and lost it, I braked hard but he was sideways and we had contact,” he added.

There had been another multiple collision which had bought out the red flags, so they lined up again for a reduced distance restart.

“I was straight into second, and tried hard to stay with Lewis again.

“But he began to get away from me and I could see him taking risks. I decided I couldn’t afford to do that, so just concentrated on my own race and holding onto second place, without any unnecessary risk,” he said.

Due to the late start to the season the race weekends are coming thick and fast and Charlie was due to be back in action on Bank Holiday Monday at Mallory Park.

Watch out for more on Hand’s progress soon in the Crawley Observer and on this website