With a three point margin in hand, Rob Collard is aiming to retain his standings lead in the British Touring Car Championship following this weekends triple-header at Knockhill.
Team JCT600 with GardX head to the notoriously challenging 1.27 mile Scottish circuit with Collard leading team-mate Sam Tordoff in the championship, whilst the team sit atop both the HiQ Teams Championship and the manufacturers category.
Despite narrowly missing out on victory during the reverse grid contest at Snetterton a fortnight ago, the 47-year old now has the opportunity to rekindle former glories in Fife, having previously taken victory five times at Knockhill, the first of which came back in 2005 during his first campaign with West Surrey Racing in the MG ZS.
Now in his twelfth campaign with Dick Bennetts’ renowned outfit, Collard’s current weapon of choice, the rear-wheel drive BMW 125i M-Sport, is set to continue the form of it’s life as the Hampshire-based driver chases a first ever BTCC title.
Looking ahead to the weekends action, Collard admitted it was a nice feeling to have wrestled the lead of the standings back from Tordoff at Snetterton, and also paid tribute to the team’s performance with just twelve races left to run this season.
He also paused to reflect on some fond career highlights from the BTCC’s annual trips to Scotland in seasons past.
“It feels fantastic to be back on top of the drivers’ championship and for Team JCT600 with GardX to be leading the race for the teams’ title with just four rounds to go.” he commented.
“Knockhill is a very special track for me because it’s where I took my first BTCC win – with WSR – in 2005 and I also had a double victory there in 2012.”
He underlined his confidence in the performance of the BMW on a circuit that has a number of gradient changes, undulating surfaces and tighter racing lines encompassed within every racing lap.
His performance in the Dunlop ‘Forever Forward’ standings already marks him out as the class of the field in terms of overtaking so far this year, and he believes repeat performances are perfectly feasible given the strengths the car is set to enjoy.
“We know it’s a track where the BMW should shine with lots of areas where its excellent traction should allow really strong pace.”
“Of course leading the championship means carrying 75kg of ballast, and this will make qualifying and Race One tough, but we’ve proven at other circuits that we can race our way to the front regardless of the circumstances.”
The first race gets underway at 11:50 on Sunday 14th August, with TouringCars.net on hand all weekend to provide full session reports, exclusive driver reactions and updates via the website and our social media feeds.