Both Rob Collard and Tom Onslow-Cole in their eBay Motors BMW scorched to the first and second positions in the opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car race at Knockhill. Such was the dominance of the BMW’s, they crossed the line 15 seconds ahead of Knockhill’s own Gordon Shedden, who came home in third.
In an enthralling race packed with incident, which included a number of safety car laps after several cars had to be removed following incidents in the opening laps. Jason Plato, pole setter from yesterday was one of the unfortunate cars to be involved. Plato was one of three cars battling for the lead heading into Clark’s corner, only for him to become entangled with Aron Smith and end up in the barriers. A furious Plato commented afterwards:
“I’m furious, what can you do when someone just drives into the back of you. I can only deduce that his only job in that race was to take me out.”
Collard however was delighted with the win and he said:
“I got of the box really well and the car is just going so well.
“Last year the car was good around here, and having the turbo this year gave us the confidence that we could be strong.”
Collard’s team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole was also flying, he set a new Knockhill lap record with a time of 53.230 seconds to over-haul Darren Turner’s effort from 2008.
Gordon Shedden secured some valuable Championship points with his team-mate and standings leader, Matt Neal, suffering a difficult weekend. Shedden squeezed past the battling Smith on the last corner of the final lap. Although there was contact, Smith took his fourth place finish in good humour:
“Yeah l’m disappointed by the way the race finished, third would have been good, but fourth is still a great result for us.”
The next BTCC action kicks in little under 5 minutes, if the first race is anything to go by, it should be a very exciting. With a touch of controversy thrown in for good measure!