Rob Collard admits that he is ‘concerned’ about the straight-line speed performance of his car at Knockhill, after the BMW driver ended the second British Touring Car Championship practice session just 30th overall in the back straight speed trap.
Collard was ninth fastest in the dry and more representative second practice session, with the WSR driver being relatively happy with the handling of his 1-Series, despite carrying 57 kg of success ballast.
“At the moment I’m very pleased with the car, it’s going really well and it’s attacking the kerbs really well,” said Collard to TouringCars.Net. “On the infield part of the circuit, from Turn 1 around to Turn 7 the car is handling very well. It also seems to be braking well into the hairpin and getting good traction.”
Despite the positive handling, Collard was particularly concerned about the team’s performance on the speed trap along the back straight, with Collard just 30th and team-mate Colin Turkington slowest of all in 32nd.
“I feel we’re a little bit compromised straight-line-speed wise; I was following a few cars there earlier and they were breaking the tow up over the hill, which is a little bit concerning.
“It could make it a bit difficult in race conditions trying to overtake tomorrow.”
In 2016 Collard qualified down in 18th at the Scottish circuit, and the BMW driver knows that with the top speed issues and his own qualifying form he needs to perform well in Saturday’s qualifying session.
“Last year, when I got pinged [for track limits] and others didn’t it was a real bitter pill to swallow, but we came back in the races and we’re planning on hopefully qualifying better today.
“We’ve got a lot of weight on but the car is handling it well. It seems to be really settled today, so I’m looking forward to the racing.”