‘UNBELIEVABLE FEELING’ AS DOMINIC WHEATLEY SCORES MAIDEN WIN

Dominic Wheatley admitted it was an ‘unbelievable feeling’ after battling to his first Vertu MINI CHALLENGE win in four years – and his first since stepping up to the JCW class.

Wheatley’s last success had come whilst racing in the Cooper class back in 2020 with PerformanceTek Racing, with his title win the following season coming despite the fact he didn’t take to the top step all year.

Since moving up into the JCW field in 2022, initially with Graves Motorsport before switching to EXCELR8 this season, Wheatley had scored four podium finishes but was still chasing a maiden win arriving at something of a second ‘home’ circuit following time in the Scottish MINI Cooper Cup earlier in his career.

Having grabbed pole for race one by virtue of having a second fastest lap quicker than anyone else in qualifying, Wheatley produced a measured drive at the front of the pack as he held off the challenge of Max Hall in the early stages before edging clear when his rival was forced to start defending.

His winning margin of more than five seconds would ultimately be the second largest of the season, beaten only by Lewis Selby in mixed conditions at Donington Park.

“It’s an unbelievable to feeling to get a win,” he said. “After qualifying in P1 I was confident going into the race, but I also knew a lot could happen – particularly around a circuit like Knockhill.

“I could easily have come away from it without even being on the podium but when I was at the front, it was a case of getting a gap ahead of Max when he was forced to start defending from Dan [Zelos].

“He was in a tough position that I’ve been in before when you don’t know whether to attack or defend, and I knew that if he had to start defending and was less focused on trying to get ahead of me, that I’d be able to get the gap I needed.”

Wheatley added that, having faced a race to get out onto the grid after the team worked to fix post-qualifying damage to his car, he had heard every possible sound whilst counting down the laps to victory.

“In those final few laps, I was sure I had a tyre going flat, then one coming off the rim, then the driveshaft was going and the gearbox was on its way out!” he quipped.

“In all seriousness, the team did a great job to get me out for the race as they had quite a bit of work to do to repair some damage after qualifying, and they sent me out there with a car that was perfect.”