Tom Chilton rescues points after a trying weekend at Donington Park

Tom Chilton held his position in the top ten of the drivers’ standings after a tricky weekend at Donington Park; retiring from the first race, but was able to go from from 28th to tenth in the second, picking up key points in the championship hunt.

Chilton, in his third consecutive race meeting of the year, with the first two BTCC race weekends sandwiching the WTCC opener at Marrakech last week, was back racing his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, and qualified a satisfactory 12th on Saturday, just half a second from pole.

In Race 1, Chilton retired in an incident with BTC Chevrolet driver Chris Smiley, leaving him at the back of the grid for the second race.

“It has been a very physical weekend, in true BTCC style, I don’t think there is a straight panel left on the car,” said Chilton.

“Race 1 is one to forget, however, Race 2 was mega. I loved cutting my way through the field, the car felt great, and it was a welcome return to the good old BTCC.”

With heavy rain falling ahead of Race 3, the first attempt at a start saw a number of incidents, with Chilton involved in a collision with West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard at the Old Hairpin. The 32-year-old went on to finish 14th, struggling with a problematic set-up on his Astra.

“Race 3 was a big learning curve; we put different set-ups on each car. The good news is we found a set-up that works in the wet; the bad news is it was not on my car,” he added, referring to his team-mate Senna Proctor, who scored his best result in the championship to-date with tenth. “Still, I bagged a critical eight points which aren’t a bad consolation.”