Michael Crees: “I feel like I’ve won a race!”

Michael Crees insisted that he felt like he’d won a race after securing a first top ten finish in the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone.

Crees went into the weekend looking to try and score points for just the second time in his BTCC career, having not managed to finish inside the top 20 since the Donington Park meeting back in April.

Having qualified 24th on the grid at the wheel of his Team HARD-run Volkswagen, Crees elected to gamble on fitting wet tyres for race one with rain in the air, but was then forced to pit for slicks at the end of the green flag lap when it became clear the gamble wasn’t going to pay off.

Retiring from the race when the alternator failed, Crees was then left at the back of the grid for race two but had worked his way up to 19th when the race was red-flagged due to rain.

Pitting for wet tyres under the safety car in race three, Crees would then find himself racing with Jason Plato, Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan as he worked his way through the field to eventually cross the line in ninth spot for his best result of the season by far.

“What a weekend!” the former Ginetta racer admitted. “Race three was one of the most amazing races I’ve ever been involved in and to come home ninth honestly feels like a win – it has been a weekend to remember for the team as a whole.

“We had great pace as soon as we hit the track and we have just worked on making improvements every time I’ve been behind the wheel. I was a little gutted that the red flag came out in race two because I was making great progress, but that set us up for race three.

“As soon as the rain started to fall I was straight in the pits and suddenly I was around the likes of Plato, Jordan and Turkington. I just stuck with them and went with them and we brought it home ninth, which is unbelievable.

“To finish in the top ten at this level and in those conditions is amazing and I have to thank the whole team and all of my loyal sponsors. This gives us plenty of momentum heading into the season finale in a couple of weeks.”