Rob Collard says that this weekend’s third meeting of the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton represents ‘a huge deal’ for the WSR driver.
Collard heads to his home round of the championship in fourth overall in the drivers’ championship, making the trio of races at the Hampshire circuit all the more important.
Having claimed his first win of the season last time out at Donington Park, Collard believes that he can enjoy another strong weekend at the high-speed circuit, despite carrying 48 kg of ballast for heading into the meeting in such a strong position in the standings.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend at Donington,” said Collard. “To top-score at a circuit that hasn’t traditionally been kind to us shows what a terrific job WSR have done developing the BMW over the winter with the car.
“Thruxton is my local circuit, so it matters a huge deal to achieve a strong set of results, but there’s a bit more riding on it this time as our championship position is so strong. With 48 kg of ballast on board, this is the heaviest my car has been all season coming into a weekend, and that will challenge us as a team.
“But I was second last year, missing the win by less than half a second, I’m making consistently good starts and am incredibly motivated to keep up the good run of form, so I think we’re in for a strong weekend.”
WSR Team Principal Dick Bennetts believes that the weekend could be particularly challenging for the BMW drivers. Thruxton is the one circuit where the field runs a harder tyre, due to the more abrasive nature of the track’s surface. Combined with the extra ballast on both Collard’s and Tordoff’s cars, Bennetts is being cautious ahead of the event.
“Team JCT600 with GardX have made a terrific start to the season and we’ve shown that even when things go against us in qualifying, Rob and Sam can get plenty of speed out of the 2016 developed BMWs on race day,” said Bennetts. “Thruxton poses a unique challenge within the BTCC as it’s so high-speed that we even have a specific Dunlop tyre that only gets used there.
“With Rob and Sam both carrying more success ballast into the weekend than at any other point this year, it will challenge us as a team, but they both have a lot of touring car experience and we have a 100 per cent finishing record so far this season, so I’m sure we can score some more very good points to keep us in the hunt for all three championships.”