Ups and downs for Rob Austin at Brands Hatch

Rob Austin ranked his final race charge at Brands Hatch as one of the best he’d ever driven, but left Kent with a sense of what might have been after mechanical woes.

Austin steered his Audi A4 to fifth from 11th in the first race of the season, and was confident of challenging for the podium in race two before his car’s propshaft broke as he left the grid.

This forced him to the back for the finale, where he carved his way past 17 cars to take 11th at the flag, one of only three drivers in the race to post a sub-49 second lap.

Austin said: “Race two was gutting, particularly as it had a knock-on effect for race three, but my mechanics did a great job as ever to put everything right and we have got some massive positives to take away.

“We’ve totally lived up to the hype of our pre-season testing pace and, against one of the most competitive grids in BTCC history, have matched the bigger factory teams for raw speed and really given them something to think about.

Race three was just relentless – I did 10 on the first lap alone and then it was all about keeping that going, closing on people, weighing them up and diving past. That stands as one of the best races I’ve ever done and a lot of it is down to how as a team we’ve engineered the car for this season.”

Rob’s new team-mate Hunter Abbott took a maiden points finish with 15th place in race three.

He said: “I’ve been encouraged by my pace first time out but there’s an awful lot to learn – how to get the best out of the car and tyres in qualifying, the different traits of the different drivers as well as the whole discipline of a touring car race.

“Bear in mind I come from GT racing where there is very little contact and in the BTCC there’s quite a bit of pushing and shoving. Now I’ve got my first three races out of the way I’m definitely targeting improvements for Donington.”