Rob Collard encouraged by BMW engine performance

Rob Collard admitted that West Surrey Racing’s early performance had exceeded his expectation after the revised BMW 125i M Sport showed strong pace during practice for the BTCC opener at Brands Hatch.

The two free practice session marked the first time that all three BMWs had run the team’s new 2017-spec engine, with the cars of both Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan being fitted with the unit for the first time.

Collard was quickest of the trio in the opening session of the weekend where he finished second on the timesheets behind Tom Ingram’s Toyota, with that lap standing as the fastest for the car so far heading into qualifying.

It was a performance that Collard admitted was a surprise given the limited running in pre-season, although he added that it left confident about securing a strong grid position for Sunday’s opening race.

“The engine is performing well and the pace has been encouraging,” he said. “We made a few changes for FP2 that didn’t quite work as the balance of the car wasn’t as good, but to have been P2 in the opening session is hugely encouraging and shows things are coming together well.

“In all honesty, I think we are ahead of where we expected to be at this stage considering that we’ve only had limited running with the new engine going into the season. We already knew we had a good chassis with the BMW, and I’m confident that we can be in the mix towards the front come qualifying.”