Tom Oliphant was ‘over the moon’ to leave Oulton Park with his second podium in the British Touring Car Championship, with the BMW driver effectively scoring his best result to-date after Jake Hill was penalised in race three.
Oliphant had qualified in seventh on Saturday, behind both of his WSR team-mates, and made steady progress in each of Sunday’s races to claim sixth, fourth and second in Cheshire.
The result means that all three WSR drivers stood on the podium at Oulton Park, with Oliphant the best-placed of the 330i M Sport drivers in the final reversed-grid race.
Oliphant told TouringCars.Net after the race that he had been confident of his podium chances at Oulton Park, as he ultimately came through from ninth on the grid to finish second in a chaotic race ahead of him.
“I had a great start,” said Oliphant. “We had a lot of pace and I knew we had the pace for a podium this weekend, I just got a bit unlucky.
“A lot of stuff happened [in race three] – I can’t remember half of it. I’m really, really over the moon to come away with a third place and the Jack Sears’ Trophy win.”
Oliphant praised the efforts by the WSR team to continually improve the 330i over the first half of the season, turning the newest car on the grid into a multiple race winner.
“We’ve done a great job. We didn’t start off with the best package by far – I think Honda have a great car, but we worked at it. Every session we’ve made changes and we’ve made improvements and we’ve come away with the best car here this weekend.”
Although Oliphant has yet to score a win whilst team-mates Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan have bagged nine victories between them, the Tarporley racer believes he is now settling down in the team and with the car.
“I’ve got a lot to catch up on – the other two drivers have been there and done it for a lot longer than I have, they’ve been with the team a lot longer.
“There’s a lot to get used to but I finally feel like I’m in the groove and I’m getting there and we’re starting to see better results.”