Aron Smith pledges to play the team game for BMR

Team BMR’s Aron Smith has pledged to play the team game heading into the final two weekends of the BTCC season, with both Jason Plato and Colin Turkington still firmly in the hunt for the championship title.

Smith added a podium to his season’s tally at Rockingham after qualifying second on Saturday, before finishing 11th in the second race and climbing to sixth in the finale.

The Irishman is hopeful Silverstone will play to the strengths of the Volkswagen CC and he can help the team bring home the silverware in all championships.

“Jason and Colin have done a great job to get to this point of the championship and be in contention. Silverstone and Brands, my primary focus is for the team to win the championship and for me to help those guys out as much as possible,” said Smith to TouringCarTimes.

“To make sure BMR win the championship – drivers, independents, teams – that’s what my goal is.”

Assessing his raceday, Smith felt he fell foul of some robust driving in the midfield.

“Qualifying for the fourth time on the front row was a great result. I didn’t have the legs on Mat [Jackson] or Gordon [Shedden] and we got third,” said Smith.

“Race two we struggled for a bit of pace and it’s a bit argy bargy here. You’re better off saying ‘you can have that place rather than driving into my door’.

“A top 10 would have been good, but there was some driving in front of me which led to drivers catching the reverse grid who shouldn’t have remained there.

“We started 11th [for race three] and got up to sixth, and I’m pretty happy with that.”