TOM Boardman's hopes of scoring a podium finish in the three different countries that the Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship visits were washed out at the weekend thanks to awful Scottish weather.

Constant rain during Rounds 15 and 16 at Knockhill, Fife, on Sunday led to the Lancashire youngster finishing eighth and ninth respectively.

Teenager Tom did not have the best of starts to the weekend either.

During the first half of Saturday's qualifying his Edenbridge Racing BMW 320i had the wrong set-up for the short, undulating track and he couldn't get the speed out of it to challenge for pole position.

That left him tenth on the grid for Round 15 (Sprint Race) and ninth for Round 16 (Feature Race).

However, despite the rain that began to fall just before the green light of the Sprint, Boardman made another of his trademark great starts to shoot up to sixth place in the BTC Production field before the first corner.

He held that position for the first eight laps, but then the weather caught him out.

He hit a river of water flowing over the track at the exit of the blind, uphill chicane, which sent his car spinning off on to the grass.

Somehow the Forton based racer regained control before he went into the barrier and managed to rejoin the track.

But he was at the back of the field.

For the remainder of the 25 laps he chased the pack and eventually managed to haul back two positions to finish a respectable eighth.

The weather worsened for the Feature Race so the first five laps were held behind the Safety Car to give all competitors a chance to get used to adverse conditions.

When the Safety Car pulled off, Boardman caught two of his rivals napping and nipped past on the first racing lap.

Poor visibility in the rain - not helped by a cracked windscreen that stopped his demister from working properly - added to the 18-year-old's problems but he still managed to slide by another car on the 20th lap (of 40) and was looking good for a top six finish.

But two laps from the end, a fellow BTC Production runner went off causing Boardman to take avoiding action.

A faster BTC Touring class car took the opportunity to get by at the same moment but accidentally clipped the BMW's front wheel sending Boardman into the gravel and damaging the car's steering.

When he emerged from the gravel, the teenager had dropped back to ninth where he remained.

He said: "I was hoping for better in Scotland, but it just wasn't to be.

I think everything out of my control went against me and sometimes that happens.

I'm still fifth in the championship though as other people had just as bad a weekend.

"The only good point from Knockhill is that the car didn't have a scratch on it at the end which is pretty unusual as that circuit is very tight and contact is very hard to avoid."