Aron Smith ends 2012 on a high with first race win

Aron Smith took his first win for Motorbase Performance at Brands Hatch in an action packed second race which saw the two drivers’ titles decided behind him.

Smith had driven up to second place from fourth on the grid before the safety car came out to recover Will Bratt’s Audi and Rob Collard’s BMW, and on the restart drove around the outside of Tom Onslow-Cole’s BMW to take the lead at the Druids hairpin and went on to take his first career win in his first full season in the championship.

“It was one of those moments where I thought now’s my chance,” said Smith to TouringCarTimes. “I’ve raced fair with Tom (Onslow-Cole) all year and I knew it would be the same in that situation, and it was one of those moves where I knew he wasn’t going to fire me off the track unlike some of the other names.”

“It’s always better when you get to race against people who treat you fairly, as I would give him the space and he gave me the space. It’s unbelievable, once I saw the empty track ahead I thought it’s going to be alright here, maybe I can get away, and I did.”

After a great first season with Motorbase Performance, as team-mate to Mat Jackson and Liam Griffin, Smith hopes to be able to return with the team next year in their new NGTC-specification Ford Focus ST.
“That’s the aim, that car will be a championship winning car next year, especially in the hands of Mat. He’s already had a win in it after it’s only done three meetings, so it’s 100% where I want to be, I don’t think I could go to another team because I like this place so much.”

Smith’s victory today could be a historic moment in the BTCC, with regulation changes next year likely to see the performance levels of the Super 2000 cars decrease in comparison to the full NGTC-spec cars, Smith’s win could be the last race win for an S2000 car, whilst Jason Plato had taken the first for SEAT at Thruxton in 2004.