Chilton says thanks to crew
Tom Chilton has bought his VX Racing crew three crates of beer to say thanks for their hard work at Knockhill – even though the 21-year-old rated it as one of the worst race meetings of his career in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
Chilton’s mechanics worked miracles to ready his Astra in time for race three after it had been eliminated from race two in a last-lap pile-up with Jason Plato’s SEAT and the Hondas of Matt Neal and Mike Jordan.
That was after they’d already patched it up once – in the pit lane during race one following a crash into the barriers. Their hard work in race three was to be for nothing, though, as the wounded Astra finally gave up the chase.
”They deserved so much more,” Chilton told BTCC.net. “I was so proud of them I’ve been out and bought them three crates of beer. It’s the least they deserve.”
Three non-scores at Knockhill mean Chilton has slipped behind team-mates Fabrizio Giovanardi and Gavin Smith in the championship standings – a situation he is keen to redress next time out at Brands Hatch on 24 September.
Chilton added: “Knockhill was the second worst weekend I’ve ever had in the BTCC. The only one worse was when I rolled in qualifying at Brands three years ago and wasn’t allowed to race on safety grounds.
“Seeing Fabrizio win race two and Gavin take second was hard – it could have been a Vauxhall 1-2-3, but there was no way I could avoid the mess in front of me, which Plato caused.
”I was the top Vauxhall driver before Knockhill, but now I’m behind so I’ve got to really focus. I’ll be trying extra hard at Brands and Silverstone.”
Chilton has admitted that 2006 hasn’t panned out how he’d expected. He came into the team, the most successful in recent BTCC history, as the youngest race winner in championship history. And he got his VXR career off to a perfect start with pole position for Brands’s season-opener in April.
But in terms of raw results, Chilton has struggled to make it onto the podium – he’d achieved a second and two thirds by the end of May, but then had to wait until Snetterton last month before again stepping back onto the podium with another third.
Chilton, now eighth in the standings, said: “I haven’t done as well this year as I thought I’d do. I’ve struggled and as a team we’ve struggled. There were a lot of changes for this year. A lot of it is about team bonding, getting to know everybody – a case of learning and getting through the year.
“Matt Neal once gave me a great piece of advice – a good sailor isn’t a good sailor if they’ve not sailed in troubled waters – and I think he was right…”
