Disappointing weekend for Rob Collard at Donington Park

West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard had a weekend that had promised more, after fifth in qualifying and leading the first race after a terrific start, incidents in all three races scuppered any chances of a podium.

In the first race, a good launch from fifth on the grid saw the BMW 320si leading the race into the first corner, leading the race until lap five, when Jason Plato’s Triple Eight MG and Mat Jackson’s Motorbase Performance Ford made their way past Collard at the final chicane, dropping Collard to sixth and would struggle to handling issues to finish in tenth.

In the second race, Collard was trying to pass Plato at the same corner on the opening lap for fourth, but the two made contact again, with Plato spun out into the wall and Collard again losing ground and going on to finish eighth, with his best result of the weekend coming in race three with fourth.

On the race two incident, Collard said to TouringCarTimes:
“Jason’s out of order, it’s completely Jason’s fault. He did the same in race one and hit me and tried to run me on the grass which damaged my steering and ruined my race one, and he tried to do the same thing in race two. He seems to have a problem, he keeps turning right when he needs to be going straight, but he ruined his own race there as well as mine.”

Plato’s view was that it was more of a racing incident after being caught up in the battle ahead.

“I lost the inside line going on the back straight, which meant Matt (Neal) got alongside me, which then meant when we got to the chicane I was a bit boxed out really,” he said to ITV Sport. “One of the problems you’ve got the there is you’ve got these concrete-like sausages, where they funnel everyone in, and I managed to get into the chicane and if I’m really honest…I didn’t know where (Collard) was really, and I think what happened was I exited the chicane, Rob had his nose up the inside of me, we touched and at that point on the lap it only needs the tiniest little rub and round I was into the wall.”

Collard reflected on his race weekend and his expectations going to his home circuit of Thruxton in two weeks time.

“It was frustrating today, we showed a lot of pace in qualifying…the start of race one was really good, but we’re eight to ten laps out of the car and then it really drops off and that’s something we have to really work on.”

“I think we’re going to struggle at Thruxton with tyre wear. I’m just very conscious at the moment the car’s not lasting on its tyres and we’re going to a really abrasive track that’s got high tyre wear so I don’t know, I’ve got reservations at the moment.”