Tom Chilton is predicting a ‘very strong’ performance at Croft in the British Touring Car Championship this weekend, with the Motorbase driver looking to carry the momentum from two podium finishes last time out.
Chilton took his first podium finishes of the year in the first and second races at Oulton Park respectively, off the back of scoring his best qualifying result since 2011.
The results moved the former WTCC racer up to eighth overall in the drivers’ championship standings, just 34 points adrift of the top of the table.
“After such a great weekend at Oulton Park, I’m really looking forward to Croft,” said Chilton. “The car is obviously performing really well and we’re back where we should be.
“I’m hoping that we can keep the ball rolling into a good weekend at Croft, which is a great circuit. It has quite unusual corners with the way you are braking and turning from high speed. You’ve got to control the car on the brake, so it is very challenging.
“The racing is always tough there. It’s one of those circuits where you think you’ve made a move on one corner and then you can lose it again on the next, so it’s very exciting.”
Chilton believes he can still score strong results in north Yorkshire, even though the circuit typically favours the rear-wheel drive cars such as the BMWs and Subarus, and he has to carry success ballast into qualifying.
“The championship is so close at the moment that I think we could see people making a few mistakes. I’m hoping with our experience we’ll be there to pick up the points.
“We’re carrying 21kg into qualifying which really equates to two tenths. That can be the difference between the top 13 on the gird, so we have a big job to do.
“It’s 100% a rear wheel drive circuit but I still think we’ll be very strong this weekend.”