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Tom Oliphant enjoys ‘awesome’ weekend at Snetterton

Ciceley Motorsport’s Tom Oliphant secured his best result of the British Touring Car Championship season at Snetterton, as he took home two eighth place finishes in the first two races.

Oliphant’s previous best finish had been ninth, which he set himself up to improve on by equalling his best qualifying result of the season with tenth in first qualifying.

The Mercedes driver put in a solid drive in the rain in race one to claim his season best finish of eighth, which he repeated in race two despite running as high as sixth at one stage.

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Race three, also from tenth on the grid after another strong showing in the ballast-free second qualifying, brought a retirement for Oliphant, after he was spun around in the pack and collected by Brett Smith’s Eurotech Racing Honda.

“All in all it’s been an awesome weekend,” said Oliphant, who took his first back-to-back top ten results. “I’ve made another big step forwards in the BTCC, improving my pace and my racecraft, and being in the top ten on merit in both qualifying and the races is a fantastic feeling and it shows how far we have come in the series.

“Saturday was particularly pleasing for me, with our out-and-out pace to qualify in the top ten in the first session, then to raise our game against an equal field and deliver P10 again, especially with the Mercedes not being the strongest package for this circuit.

“They were really difficult conditions in the races, especially in the opener when we could barely see anything for the first five laps. I coped well with the conditions though, which is another sign of how much more comfortable I feel in the car, and to bring it home in eighth was brilliant.

“To follow that up with the same result in race two was fantastic and I feel we could have done the same or more in the final race.”

Despite his race three crash, after in the pack from Sam Tordoff, Olihpant was positive for the rest of the season after being the quickest Mercedes driver throughout the weekend.

“I had some back luck on the first lap with my position on track and got put back, and then one driver tried really hard to spin me and at the third attempt he succeeded.

“Fortunately, we came off quite lightly with the damage to the car, and while it’s a hugely frustrating end to the weekend, we come away really happy with our speed and progress across the meeting and it is a positive sign for the rest of the season.”

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