Rob Collard has stressed the importance of ‘scoring big’ in this weekend’s British Touring Car Championship races at Croft, as the leading BMW driver heads to a circuit regarded as being favourable for the rear-wheel drive cars.
Collard currently lies second overall in the drivers’ championship standings after being the only driver in the field to have finished in the points in every race so far this year.
The Team BMW driver is 16 points adrift of leader Gordon Shedden, but he heads to a circuit where he took a victory in each of the past two seasons and which should suit the BMW 1-Series cars.
“It’s been a very strong season so far and we’re second in the championship with a lot more points than at this stage of the 2016 season,” said Collard.
“I’m the only driver to score a podium at every event so far and we’ve tended to have two very good finishes each weekend, which has served us very well.
“It’s important to score big this weekend as Croft is a track where WSR have been very strong in the past and where I’ve won in each of the past two years, but we seem to be closer than ever before at the non-BMW circuits, so I genuinely think we can win anywhere.”
WSR team Principal Dick Bennetts acknowledges that the ballast carried by both Collard, at 66 kg, and team-mate Colin Turkington, at 48 kg for being fourth in the points, will make life more difficult in north Yorkshire.
“We’ve had a lot of success at Croft in the past with 16 wins and even a one-two-three finish in 2015,” said Bennetts. “It’s certainly a circuit at which we’ve been able to use the strengths of the BMW to the best possible effect.
“But that’s history and this weekend is now; and everybody at WSR will work extremely hard to make sure we can fight at the front.
“This year, with 32 cars on the grid, and a very competitive top-15 cars, it won’t be easy.
“Both Team BMW cars will carry a lot of success ballast, but if you’re going to fight for a championship, that’s the way it has to be and we’re used to it.”