Chilton believes his title challenge is over

Tom Chilton has resigned himself to thinking the drivers championship is out of reach, and is focusing on helping Team Aon in the other classifications.

Tom Chilton is now 59 points behind championship leader Jason Plato, and if he took a perfect weekend result of three race wins, pole and all the fastest lap points, with Plato not scoring, the Team Aon driver would just close up to seven points behind before the final race of the season.

“Realistically I think my chances of winning the driver’s title are now remote,” said Chilton.

“I really need the leaders to have bad races, but anything is possible with the BTCC!”.

The Ford Focus ST should favour the longer Donington Park circuit, more so than it did Knockhill, and Chilton’s aiming for strong results this weekend.

“I think our car will be good around Donington and so I really hope we can challenge for podiums in each race. That will help in the battle for the other championships up for grabs, like the Constructors and the Independents titles.”

Team Aon, run by Arena Motorsport, are just two points behind the Honda Racing Team in the Manufacturer/Constructors championship, whilst Chilton is just 33 points adrift in third place in the independent drivers’ category and can still challenge for that honour, though he’d need strong results over Airwaves BMW’s Steven Kane and his team mate to accomplish it.

Remarkably, this is only Tom Chilton’s third full season as an entry in the independents’ category in his BTCC career, with his best position in the indie category being fourth place in the 2005 standings, then running an independent Honda Civic Type-R with Arena Motorsport in only a partial season.