Motorbase Performance’s Tom Chilton is feeling confident ahead of today’s trio of British Touring Car Championship races at Knockhill after qualifying fourth for the opening contest.
Chilton, whose last victory came in race three at Knockhill last season, feels he has a huge opportunity for a podium in the first encounter and for three strong finishes throughout the day.
He told TouringCars.Net he felt he maximised the lap time out of his Ford Focus RS around the demanding 1.3-mile Fife circuit, and that the car has progressed substantially since his last win.
“It was a fantastic effort, last year here I qualified 15th, which was the best out of us three at Motorbase and that was the best we could get out of it,” said Chilton.
“We did a lot of work with the car over the winter, and so much work that we’ve been still trying to get the perfect setup at every circuit as we’ve been going.
“But as the year’s been progressing we’ve been learning more and more and getting quicker and quicker.
“I managed to get a perfect time out of it yesterday, we had a perfect setup on the car. I genuinely believe we couldn’t have done any better.
“It’s P4, which is fantastic. Last year I won a race after starting 15th, this time around I’m starting fourth. So watch this space.”
Although Chilton acknowledges the threat at the start from Senna Proctor alongside and Colin Turkington behind, he feels he has set up his Ford to come on strong at the end of the 24-lap race.
“I’ve set my car up to be quick at the end of the race, hoping that the guys in front who have success ballast will use their tyres hard,” he explained.
“They might be able to pull away from me in the first half of the race but especially if there’s a safety car which is almost inevitable around this circuit, it’ll bunch back up.
“I’m hoping I’ll have a great car in the second half of the race to try and fight for a good podium position.
“The only worrying thing is I have two rear-wheel drive cars next to me on the start. I’ve got Proctor on the inside of me and Turkington behind me so I’ll have to try to jump them off the line which is basically impossible.
“I’ll have to see what I can do.”
The opening British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend is set to get underway at 11:45 BST.