Tom Chilton hopes to stay in 2014 following first win

RML’s Tom Chilton has celebrated his first win in the WTCC at Sonoma, starting from pole position in the team’s Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T, and hopes to be on the grid, perhaps with RML, in the 2014 season.

The 28-year-old turned his first pole position on Saturday into a first win on Sunday, holding off team-mate Yvan Muller at the start and then the charge of Honda’s Tiago Monteiro to take victory in his second year in the Championship, and leaves Sonoma joint fourth in the drivers’ standings along with fellow Brit James Nash.

“It’s awesome, it’s fantastic to win a race, and it feels even better to have beaten my team-mate this weekend,” said Chilton to TouringCarTimes. “Yvan is the man, and everyone knows it, and to be a little bit quicker in nearly every session this weekend was quite nice, and to have him on the run. I don’t know if that’ll be the case anywhere else, but it’s nice to have happened at one circuit this year.”

“I was quite shocked as to how fast Tiago (Monteiro) was in that Honda. There were a couple of places where I thought if I made a tiny mistake he’d get past me, so I couldn’t afford to make a mistake. At the end, because of my tyre management at the beginning, I think that helped me at the end of the race.”

Chilton was unable to follow up his race one victory with a good result in the second race however, after bogging down at the start from tenth on the grid.

“I wasn’t even on the clutch pedal when the lights went ‘green’, it went so fast…just as I was doing the start procedure in the car the lights went off, there was no way that was five seconds…so I had no boost in the engine and was passed by a load of cars,” he said.

With new regulations coming into force next year, and uncertainty over RML’s plans, which may include building a car to the new regulations even without a manufacturer, Chilton hopes to be on the grid with RML or one of the manufacturer teams in 2014.

“I do feel like I’m just getting used to the Championship, and I think next year with the new rules will suit my driving style a little more,” he said.

“I want to be in this Championship next year, I think for me it’s the most fun racing and that’s why I like it, and I think it has a future with more manufacturers coming, and manufacturers are going to be looking for top drivers. I’d like to think I’m in the top five driver category on the grid at the moment, and for sure, If RML are doing something I’d very much like to think they would have me and I’d like to stay here, I think they’re a really good team.”