Dan Welch just misses podium at Oulton Park

Dan Welch had a good weekend at Oulton Park in the Welch Motorsport Proton Persona, just missing the podium in race one and taking the best result for a Proton in the BTCC since Croft in 2002.

Welch’s fourth place in the second race, finishing behind the works Honda Civic of Gordon Shedden, the Eurotech Honda of Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato’s MG6 was the best result for the Proton marque in the championship since David Leslie finished on the podium at Croft in 2002 in the Proton Impian.

The weekend started well with Welch qualifying in eighth place, just over a second down on Jason Plato’s pole position time.

“We’ve always felt we’re a top ten pace car and that’s where we should be,” said Welch to TouringCarTimes. “After the disaster we had a Thruxton, it’s quite nice to come back and start a weekend somewhere sensible.”

“We’re constantly flat out developing the car the whole time; we’re always changing or tweaking something. Unfortunately we haven’t been out testing since Thruxton.”

In the first race, Welch finished in sixth place, and was threatening Mat Jackson’s Ford Focus who was struggling with an engine problem late in the race. A good start in race two plus contact up front between Jackson and Collard saw the 29-year-old up into third place behind the Hondas of Shedden and Jordan, but was closed down by Jason Plato who had to start at the back after his DNS in race one.

“Races one and two were really good, just a shame we couldn’t quite get the podium, but we had a problem with the steering rack, it was loose in the car and was moving so it didn’t feel too safe to drive it,” said Welch.

“On the radio they said (Plato) was behind and closing at three tenths a lap, see if you can push a bit and we tried to, and then two laps from the end the tyres went off a cliff, at that point I knew I had no chance, and he had such good traction off the corner he just out-dragged me.”

“It wasn’t worth putting up a big fight as you’d only end up bringing a wrecked car home, all in all, two good results, just a shame about the end of it.”

In the third race, Welch was hit by Mat Jackson’s Ford and was knocked into the gravel trap at Lodge corner, which Jackson was punished by the stewards for, ending his race.
“We’d sorted out the steering rack problem, but if felt like the engine was down from lap one. As we pushed down the straight it was still OK, we could still fight, but just got shovelled off by Jackson.”

Plato remarked on his drive through the field that his battle with Dan Welch at the end was the probably the more enjoyable battle as he passed 19 cars on his way up to third place.

“I had to think about it with Dan Welch,” said Plato. “By then I’d hurt my tyres and there were some places where he was very quick, and a couple of places where he wasn’t. Once I got near, I got up to him to maybe a second and half away and kept the gap. What I was trying to do was stop working the car, let’s just have a couple of nice steady laps, maintain the gap and let everything cool down. Then three laps from the end we pushed the button and off we went after him and I was decisive and got the move, so that was really quite fun, I enjoyed that.”

After a tough start to the season, Welch’s results at Oulton Park have moved him to 15th in the overall drivers’ championship and to 12th in the independent drivers’ standings.