Rob Collard slams Team Dynamics drivers for second contact of the year

West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard was furious with reigning champion Gordon Shedden after the third race at Knockhill, claiming the Team Dynamics Honda driver pushed him out of the way for second place soon after he’d successfully made his way past at Duffus Dip.

The BMW driver was on target for a second-place finish, which would have seen him finish the day third in the drivers’ standings, ahead of Shedden, before the incident which saw him shuffled down to fourth – before a late-race error meant Collard would lose further ground and dropped to 11th at the finish.

“I’m very disappointed with being pushed off the Hondas again,” said Collard to TouringCarTimes. “They can’t overtake anyone cleanly without barging you off the track.

“I overtook Gordon (Shedden) cleanly, then he came back into me and just drove me off the track. They can’t seem to overtake anyone without banging into you. Nor can Matt Neal. Neal did it to me at Croft, and Gordon did it to me here. It’s disappointing at this level.”

Matt Neal believed Shedden, and himself at Croft, had both made successful moves on Collard, but both times it was the characteristics of the cars, coupled with the lead driver’s overly defensive behaviour, which are the main catalysts for the contact.

“The Honda is arguably the best of any car on the brakes, so you can outbrake anything,” said Neal to TouringCarTimes. “The only drama is as a driver, and I’m not narrowing this to just Honda drivers, when you see a gap and commit to the pass, you need to carry more speed and haul the car up faster.

“Once you’ve committed, sometimes the lead car then sees you coming and moves across to try and cover – but in doing so moves into the way and actually causes the collision. The blame for who is at fault often naturally gets pointed at the car which is coming from behind, whilst in fact it’s the driver in front refusing to concede when someone’s jumped him.

“It’s a good debate, but let’s face it, it’s a good job the Honda is good on the brakes, because it isn’t passing anyone in a straight line. is it?”

Neal felt Collard’s frustration may also be borne out of his own mistake later in the race, and doesn’t hold any hard feelings.

“Rob’s a good lad. I can only guess it might be a hangover from his frustration at falling off all on his own, and giving points away with a handful of laps left in the last race. He also forgets to mention the square hit in the rear when he turfed Flash (Shedden) out at Croft. We like him still, even if he has the ache with us.”