Andy Priaulx: “The whole weekend was good”

Andy Priaulx was with his most successful weekend since his BTCC return at Croft, taking victory and a second position around the North Yorkshire circuit.

Priaulx, who was narrowly pipped to pole on Saturday by team-mate Sam Tordoff, finished no lower than fourth, which he took in the second race when carrying full ballast and running with the soft tyre, rounding off an incredibly strong weekend for the three-time World Champion.

“I’m really happy,” Priaulx told TouringCarTimes. “For me race two with weight and also using the soft tyre was great. I think the whole weekend was good, if there was anything that I could say wasn’t quite the best was my quali, but to be disappointed with P2 is something I should be happy with in a way.”

Priaulx took victory in the opening race of the day, leading home a West Surrey Racing 1-2-3, the first in the team’s history. Fourth in race two set Priaulx up for a strong race three, starting from third on the grid.

The BMW driver got the jump on championship leader Gordon Shedden off the line for second, before Shedden regained the position a few corners later. With the Honda driver using the softer tyre, Priaulx was able to close in on Shedden in the dying laps, with the BMW driver only managing to secure the position at the final corner of the final lap.

“It was a good race,” said Priaulx. “I saw Gordon was pushing really hard and he had to do that to get to Rob. There was still a little bit of juice left in the tyre and I started to get closer and closer and on the last lap I knew I had two places, either at turn three or the hairpin. I wasn’t close enough in turn three so I had to squeeze him in the end and I had to hustle him. We had a great battle, side by side everywhere and the last lap I just squeezed up the inside at the hairpin which was great.”