A sensational victory for Rob Collard at Thruxton on Sunday (May 7) increased the BTCC Teams’ Championship lead of WSR-run Team BMW, and also maintained BMW’s advantage at the head of the Manufacturers’ title race.
From 10th on the Race Two grid, Hampshireman Rob leapt up to third place at the start and had moved his BMW 125i M Sport into the lead by the time the race was red-flagged after three laps.
At the restart he drove away from the field to take his first win of the 2017 season and the 14th of his BTCC career in a race that was declared short of its intended distance due to an accident.
Rob’s 10th and seventh places in the other races – the latter result coming with a full 75kg of success ballast – puts him fourth overall.
The next event takes place at Oulton Park in Cheshire on May 20-21.
Rob Collard said: “It feels fantastic to get a victory so early in the season and to do it at my local circuit – especially as Thruxton isn’t a track we expected to win at. We’ve worked hard to maximise not just the starts, but the early laps, and the results have been very good today. With the full ballast of 75kg in Race Three it was always going to be difficult to finish well, so seventh was a very useful haul of points to add to those achieved earlier in the day and it means we go to Oulton Park – a track we’re normally strong at – in very good shape.”
