Rob Collard rues tyre choice in “up and down” Brands weekend

Rob Collard was left ruing the choice to run the softer tyre in the second race of the day at the BTCC season finale at Brands Hatch, where he came within a few laps of taking a victory.

Having only just made it to the final round, following a major rebuild of the West Surrey Racing BMW after his almighty shunt at Silverstone, Collard showed a turn of pace in the opening practice sessions, despite fighting with a misfire, only to be caught out by the drying conditions in qualifying.

Having started from down in 23rd for the start of race one, an impressive drive from the back saw Collard only narrowly miss out on a top five result, finishing just two tenths of a second behind Adam Morgan and taking sixth place.

Collard enjoyed a spell at the top of the pile in race two after an incident took team-mate, and new champion, Colin Turkington out of the lead, swiftly followed by Mat Jackson spinning out from first place on the GP loop. However with just a handful of laps remaining, Collard’s choice to run the soft tyres in the second race came back to bite him as he succumbed to the chasing pack.

“It was a bit of an up and down weekend really,” Collard told TouringCarTimes after retiring from race three without completing a lap. “It was torture to end up where we did on the grid, we were second quickest in qualifying when it was wet, but obviously then dropped down the order. To be 23rd on the grid after all the effort the guys had done to repair the car wasn’t a great result.

“Then race one we got a cracking start and managed to avoid all the contact through turns one and two and come through and drove a stonking race. To be sixth was great. Then race two – we chose the soft tyre which in hindsight was not a great move. The car was great to start with for the first ten laps, we were holding Jason off and I could see where we were strong and he was weak, we just couldn’t hold on to it. The tyres started deteriorating with three laps to go and they just fell off the cliff and we went backwards.”

With the 2014 season now over, attention turns to 2015 and the driver market is in full swing, with drivers assessing their options over the winter.

“I’m hoping to stay with WSR,” said Collard. “That’s where I want to be, but obviously I have to see what their plans are, but I’d love to stay here with them. Between Colin and myself we’ve got this car absolutely hooked up and this is a prime seat.”