New season up and running for Kirkcaldy motor racers

Jonny Adam (right) on the British GT podium with TF Sport team mate Derek Johnston.

For Adam, it was a particularly busy start to the year as he opened his FIA World Endurance Championship campaign at the Six Hours of Silverstone on Sunday, claiming a seventh place finish in class with Aston Martin.

He then dashed to Oulton Park for the opening two rounds of the British GT Championship on Monday, and started his title defence along with TF Sport team mate Derek Johnston with two podium finishes, despite starting from the back of the grid due to missing qualifying.

“It was the busiest of weekends,” Adam told the Press.

“On Sunday at Silverstone we were looking good for a top five position but I had a little bit of contact with an LMP car which caused some rear damage so we lost a couple of positions in the end. That was a bit of a shame.

“On Monday, because I missed British GT qualifying on Saturday, it meant we had to start at back of GT3 grid so our aim was just for damage limitation, thinking top fives would be good.

“But we finished third in race one and second in the race two, so we actually had a great weekend.

“There wasn’t a mark on the car and we walked away with a good haul of points.”

Jonny begins his third championship of the season this weekend when he travels to Monza, Italy for the first round of the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Fellow Lang Toun driver Butcher was also in action at Silverstone over the weekend in the 2017 European Le Mans Series opener.

However, despite his best efforts, the JMW Motorsport team could only manage a fifth place finish in the GTE class in the Ferrari 458.

The car struggled for pace all weekend against the newer Ferrari 488 and the heavily updated Aston Martin.

Bucther believes the championship organisers should look to redress the Balance of Performance (BoP) system, which implements restrictions on the performances of each car to ensure a level playing field.

“It was a challenging weekend but I have no doubt that our title hopes will get back on track once the ELMS organisers get through these initial BoP teething problems,” he said.