Drivers and team quotes from Croft

A brace of wins for Colin Turkington propelled the Team RAC driver into the championship lead, while teammate Stephen Jelley recorded his first every BTCC podium in race one, and went on to repeat the feat in races two and three.

In race three Fabrizio Giovanardi got his season back on track with his first victory since April, closing the gap between himself and Matt Neal in the standings. So as we go into the BTCC mid-season break, here is a selection of quotes from a weekend of mixed weather at Croft.

Colin Turkington
“What a fantastic day. I am delighted to be leading the Championship. The success is down to a real team effort. WSR have given Stephen and I great cars, and we are performing at our best and taking full advantage of the good conditions.

I will go in to the mid-season break full of confidence and I’m already eager to get back behind the wheel at Snetterton.”

Stephen Jelley
“I am thrilled with my three podium finishes today. I got a great start in the first race and was able to move away from the pack quite quickly.

Although I didn’t start the race two quite as well, I managed to hold off some early pressure to keep hold of second place. I feel as if I’ve had the pace all season but that everything has finally fallen into place.”

Dick Bennetts, WSR Team Principal
“An amazing result. I’m very pleased for both Colin and Stephen and all the team.

We are now in a fantastic position going in to the break. We have great speed and reliability and look forward to some more good results throughout the rest of the season.”

Fabrizio Giovanardi
“I have had to wait a while to win again, but my car was very quick in this race. We had a dry set up, but once I knew I had grip I knew the car would be okay and I could push hard. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t get back ahead of James (Thompson) with the second safety car and knew I only needed one lap to do it, so I was relieved when we started racing again”.

Matt Neal
“I wasn’t happy to be punted off by Jason (Plato) and it’s not the first time as it happened at Donington; it’s just disappointing for the boys who work so hard when we don’t get the results we deserve.

I guess you have to have bad ones to appreciate the good ones. My car felt better and better as the weekend went on, but it wasn’t the track for us. I don’t think losing the championship lead is a concern as we still have plenty of races to come and circuits, which are more suited to our car.”

Andrew Jordan
“It’s been tough here today. In the first race we had a really bad handling car in the heat and struggled with understeer. For the second race we made some changes and ran in convoy with the other two at their pace which was pleasing. In the final race, I was worried about aquaplaning off, so I didn’t push hard enough early on. Then on the last lap of the race I got the fastest lap. The car felt good but I suppose knowing when to push the car is all part of the learning process.”

Rob Collard
“What a day. I was happy to get two fourths in the first two races, as the car wasn’t quite the way we wanted it but we still managed to score well. The conditions were very, very treacherous in race three though. We dominated in the wet at Donington but it must’ve been a different type of rain falling at Croft today because we couldn’t quite find the same pace. I’m just glad to have scored points in all three races and kept myself in the championship, because consistency is the key in this race series.”

Jonathan Adam
“Two points scores was today was good, it was just disappointing my engine went in race two and I missed my target of scoring in all three races for the first time. I’m really grateful to my mechanics for getting me back out for race three, they worked so hard and deserve a lot of credit producing a strong car after all that.