Tom Oliphant: “Two points have never felt better”

Tom Oliphant insisted that the two points he scored at Oulton Park had “never felt better” after the WSR driver found himself out of luck in his home round of the BTCC season.

Oliphant headed for round four on the back of a race winning weekend at Brands Hatch but his hopes of replicating that would end in race one when contact with Jason Plato at Lodge saw him tipped into a spin.

The BMW would then be collected by Chris Smiley and Rick Parfitt, sustaining heavy damage that would prevent him from starting race two.

With the car repaired in time for race three, Oliphant came through to 14th from the back to salvage points and was quick to praise his team for its efforts to get him back on track.

“Given everything that has happened, those two points in race three have never felt better,” he said “Firstly, I have to say a massive thank you to all of the volunteer marshals and medics. They were at the scene of my crash – and the many others over the course of the day – within seconds and were just amazing.
 
“Following the tragic accident that took place at Brands Hatch on Saturday, they all came back to do a job on Sunday and you have to have nothing but respect for that. Without them we wouldn’t be able to race, simple as that.
 
“I’ve also got to say a huge thank you to everyone at West Surrey Racing because they did an incredible job to get me out for race three; I’m still not quite sure how they did it! I had two pretty big hits and was pretty sure I’d be watching that last one from home.
 
“They’ve built a really solid car and everyone mucked in to get it back to looking pretty much brand new. They showed the real meaning of never giving up and what it means to be part of a team; I’m so proud of them!
 
“We’re off to Knockhill next so hopefully we will have better luck there. I’ll head there without any ballast so that will be something we can utilise in our quest for a big points haul.”