Dan eyes championship

A LOCKERBIE racing driver is aiming to take home the Scottish Mini Cooper Cup trophy after making an impressive start to the season. Daniel Patterson sits second in the standings at the halfway point of the championship. Out of ten races finished he has stood on the podium seven times, with four first place prizes. He trails the overall leader by 19 points, and sits 36 ahead of the driver in third. Back in May the 36-year-old picked up two wins at Knockhill in the circuits 50th anniversary of car racing weekend. And last month at Cadwell Park Patterson scooped a second and a first place finish. But claiming the big prize will be no easy task with a number of drivers still in with a shout. The Scottish Mini Cooper Cup is recognised as one of the best single-make racing series in the UK. It has been a proving ground for many top drivers, including British Touring Car Championship stars Rory Butcher, Aiden Moffat and Chris Smiley, as well as Thornhill’s Ross Wylie. Patterson, who runs his own electrical engineering business alongside his racing, started his motorsport journey as a youngster via the karting route: he was on the national circuit and attended meetings across the length and breadth of the UK. But at 18 he stopped racing and a decade long break from the sport ensued. That was until 2019 when he purchased a race car and entered into the coveted Scottish Mini Cooper Cup. Explaining the championship, Patterson said: “Only the 1.6 Mini Cooper model built between 2001-2006 is eligible. “The championship regulations are designed to ensure that cars are built to the same specification; the cars use identical Yokohama tyres and run the same ECU. “This puts more emphasis on a drivers skill by keeping the cars performance as equal as possible. “On most tracks we can reach speeds up to 115/120mph. “The race day format is qualifying followed by three 12/15 minute races. “Race One positions are done based on your best lap times during qualifying Race Two positions are based on where you finished during Race One and Race Three is a reverse grid drawn from a ball which can reverse the top eight cars, its the same as the British Touring Car format. “Some rounds are timed and others are a lap count down.” He added: “There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes at my dads workshop leading up to race days. “Everything from getting the car prepared with setup/corner weighing/alignment and cosmetic repairs (Minis serves up a good bit of contact with such close wheeled racing). “My dad puts in lots of hours at the workshop creating and maintaining a championship winning car.” On recent successful weekends at Knockhill and Cadwell Park, in June, Patterson said: “Knockhill was a massive weekend for the team, picking up two wins on such a huge day, in the sunshine and with several big names in attendance such as John Cleland and Jimmy McRae and several of the British Touring Car drivers Gordon Shedden, Aidan Moffat and Dexter Patterson, to name a few, and there were huge crowds over the weekend as well.” Thanks are expressed to all family and friends for their help and support. You can follow the Scottish Mini Cooper Cup on Facebook or on its website smrc.co.uk/championships/scottish-mini-cooper-cup