Rob Collard wants to get qualifying sorted at Brands showdown

Rob Collard heads to Brands Hatch this weekend with the best chance of winning his first British Touring Car Championship drivers’ title, as he heads in 17 points behind West Surrey Racing team-mate and championship leader Sam Tordoff with 67 to play for. The 47-year-old also hopes to resolve his qualifying woes this weekend, which has seen him have to fight his way up the order in almost every race.

Collard has only once qualified inside the top ten this season, back at Donington Park when he lined up sixth on the grid in his BMW 125i M Sport. Collard’s season average is 17th, and his two worst qualifying results have come in the last two races, where he started 27th at Rockingham and 25th at Silverstone, but still managed to take good points from both race weekends.

“You wonder where I’d be in the championship if I could qualify in the top ten at every race,” said Collard to TouringCarTimes. “I feel embarrassed sometimes with our qualifying performances, especially (at Silverstone) when everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong; including being hit by my team-mate which cost us a lot of time, and then getting my lap disallowed.

“(But in Race 1) within the three laps I was in a decent race position and then it was game on. We had a great start, I think a few people got taken out at Copse which allowed me to make a few positions in the first few laps.”

Heading to Brands Hatch this weekend, the championship hopeful says this year’s championship is still completely open with eight drivers all in contention.

“It’s so feisty out there. One of the three or four of us could easily get taken out or drop back and not score any points.”