KELTY motorsport star Ronan Pearson has moved into third place of a national championship after an "incredible" double win on home turf.

Knockhill Racing Circuit played host to the latest race weekend in the Quaife Mini Challenge, over the weekend of July 30-31, and two race victories, plus one second spot, has put the Fifer firmly into title contention.

Held as a support class to the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, the series' visit to Scotland's national motorsport centre gave Pearson the chance to impress in front of a home crowd – and he seized it with both hands.

After topping the times in the opening practice session, which carried into qualifying as he clinched pole position, EXCELR8 driver Pearson dominated the opening race, easing away after an early caution period to take a comfortable victory by more than seven seconds.

That meant he would start at the front of the field for a second time and, once more, he retained his advantage when the field streamed down to Duffus Dip for the first time.

However, unlike in the opener, Pearson found himself under pressure throughout from his team-mate, Jason Lockwood, but was able to hold him off to secure a second victory and vault up the championship order.

For the weekend's final race, starting from sixth on the reverse grid, he moved up to fourth on the opening lap before the safety car was deployed to allow two stricken cars to be recovered, and then moved into third spot.

A retirement from leader Max Coates then allowed Pearson to take second spot, but his hopes of a clean sweep of chequered flags was dashed when the safety car was introduced for a second time prior to the contest ending.

Despite that, Pearson will go into this weekend's round at Snetterton in fine fettle, and he commented: "It’s been an absolutely incredible weekend and I don’t think you could have scripted it much better than that.

"We were so close to scoring a hat-trick and I genuinely think we would have done it without the safety car in that final race as I’m confident we would have been able to get ahead of Alex (Denning) with the pace in the car.

"From the moment we arrived here on Monday for some testing, the car was fantastic and that is all credit to the team. The squishy bit behind the wheel just had to then deliver on the potential!

"This has been a huge weekend and shows we are right in the title fight, which I never doubted was the case. We had a bit of a dip last time out at Oulton Park, but we’ve come back out here and nailed it."