Robb Holland is hopeful that the British Touring Car Championship’s mid-season break will help him to find speed in his car, with a rigorous testing schedule planned.
The American came into his first full season in the sport full of optimism, but a spate of car issues during the first five rounds of the season – which included a shunt at Donington Park that forced him to miss the following round at Thruxton – have left Holland and his Rotek Racing team with little time to optimise the performance of their Audi S3.
And the series’ visit to Croft was another tale of frustration for Holland, who raced well to secure 20th in the days’ second race before a wheel nut issue forced the 46-year-old to retire from the final encounter after just four laps, of which only three were behind the safety car.
After his first experience of racing on the circuit, Holland was frustrated by another fresh problem with his machine, as he reflected on a difficult weekend in Yorkshire.
“It has been a tough weekend for the team and we definitely didn’t have a handle on the car like we expected to, experiencing various small issues that hampered progress at Croft Circuit,” said Holland. “For example, we bust a wheel nut during the out-lap in race three, only for it to reoccur again after the Safety Car deployment. We’ve never had that problem before, so it’s weird to say the least.”
But the 46-year-old retained optimism for the remainder of the championship, adding that with no major damage to his Audi after the Croft meeting, he would be able to get straight down to testing as he looks to improve on his fortunes from the opening half of the season.
“The positive we can take is that we take the car home with no damage, which means we can get cracking with a thorough and comprehensive testing programme on the track, in the windtunnel and on the shake rig.
“These are all the things we hoped to do during the lead-up to the season so I’m looking forward to getting on with that straight away, seeing if we can make progress and get a better start to the second half of the season than we did in the first.”