Kizi goes close.

Erkut Kizilirmak came close to opening his account in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham after just missing out on his first top ten finish since joining the series last season.

The Turkish driver, competing in a full BTCC season for the first time during 2007, bounced back from missing the second race at the Rock to take his best result of the season in race three - missing out a points scoring finish by just under three second.

Having qualified in 17th place on the grid, Erkut battled to a 16th place finish in the opening race of the weekend after losing a race long battle with the BMW of Martyn Bell on the final lap. However, the Arkas Racing man was unable to build on that in race two, when a mechanical issue on the Astra Sport Hatch forced him out on the formation lap before he took his place on the grid.

Forced to start near the back of the field as a result, Erkut made up places to lie in tenth place putting him on course for his first point, and despite losing the place to Simon Blanckley, the Turk still took a fine eleventh place finish.

"I really enjoyed today but I know I need to work on my understanding of the car," he said, "As we keep saying, I am learning all of the time. I cannot complain about the car at all, I just have a lack of knowledge of how to set the car up at this level and so I guess that is probably what is missing for us. When I can set the car up better we will have some better results but today we had fun and it's great to record our best result.

"There was certainly plenty of action in the last race - it was a very big fight into the first hairpin on the opening lap. I just managed to miss a car which had spun in front of me and then I was hit by another car. You just wanted to close your eyes and then open them again when you thought you were through the corner safely! It was unbelievable. We obviously had some good fortune but the car was great, the team is perfect and everyone is working very hard."

Arkas technical director Brian Ashwood said the team was pleased with how the weekend had gone, although a lesson had been learned regarding set-up of the former works Vauxhall car during the weekend.

"If there was a lesson we learned today then it was that we perhaps played with the set-up too much rather than being a bit more patient," he said. "The team did a great job though and Erkut is improving every time he is in the car. As he gains more knowledge, we will only get stronger and stronger."