Collard happy as top ‘non-turbo’ in race one

Rob Collard finished in seventh place, the top of the normally aspirated Super 2000 class cars after problems for the reigning champion Jason Plato.

Collard had qualified tenth with a time which would have been good enough for third on the grid in last year’s race, and made good progress at the start in the rear-wheel drive BMW to move into position behind Jason Plato into the first corner.

“We’re happy with the car in its form, we can’t do any more with the car than what we’ve done,” said Collard to TouringCarTimes.

“It’s 5-6mph slower on the straight than some of our competitors. I feel like I’ve got every ounce out of the BMW this weekend for qualifying and for race one. It’s handling really well, the braking’s really good, and that’s all we can do, we can’t do any more.”

Rob added:

“There are two classes of racing out there at the moment, and I’m happy that I’ve won the non-turbo class.”

Collard dropped one position to Mat Jackson’s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus, which had lost ground on the first lap, and then battled to keep the charging Tom Boardman behind who was recovering after his qualifying problem.

“I defended against him (Jackson) for a couple of laps. He got half past me coming down the pit straight and I outbraked him into Redgate, but the following lap he just drove past me cleanly on the straight.”

“Tom (Boardman) drove a really nice smart race, I’ve got to give him a lot of respect as we were wheel-to-wheel there on many occassions, and not one of us actually hit each other.”