Chris Cockburn Racing

🏁RACE REPORT, 2026 Scottish Motor Racing Club Scottish MINI Cooper Cup RD 3, Kirkistown Circuit🏁

Q - 4th
R1- 4th
R2- 4th
R3- 6th

A new circuit for me, I quite enjoyed driving the Kirkistown circuit in Northern Ireland. Fast and long straights, long corners, chicane, and technical hairpin with an old school sort of vibe sums the place up.

Testing was a learning experience as we had around 50 laps or so to try and dial in a good set up. Then to qualifying and managed to string some decent laps together to go P4.

Race 1 saw a decent start and a fun bit of side by side with Michael Williams into Colonial, but with no contact, saw me settle into 4th. Going into lap 2 though, I made a daft mistake and dropped to 7th, but recovered take 4th.

Race 2 - I got not quite as good a start and after a crazy tight 3 wide entry into Colonial with James Hitchen in front, Michael to the right and Martin Wijetunga to the left, we exited staying just ahead of Martin but Presley Barratt slipped past. So again I managed to claw back from 6th to 4th.

Race 3 was super frustrating. Started 2nd, let Michael through and followed him and James but made a cool move into the hairpin at end of L2 take the lead. That’s as good as things got… I found myself getting overtaken, hit the back of Michael, which damaged my car. Then Martin joined the party and from there, I just ended up battling, getting drafted past and losing momentum off line and also got hit under braking into Colonial which all went together to result in 6th at the flag. Oh, and I nearly had a huge crash at the chicane as went wide over the grass pushing too hard. Bit of a sh*tshow really! But congrats to the podium finishers Chad Little on the win and Jack Irvine Racing and Michael Williams on the clean sweep on the podium.

All in all I came away frustrated as really should have got a podium. But I’ll regroup and be ready for Knockhill next time

Thanks to , Kerr Plumbing and Heating, Extrego, Joe Walker's Flooring, , Race Against Dementia. Fox Red Campers, Vehicle Hub Scotland, And our hosts and marshals at Kirkistown circuit for having us!