Tom Chilton believes that he still has a shot at securing the overall British Touring Car Championship crown after taking victory in race three at Knockhill – despite the Motorbase driver being 65 points adrift with six races to run.
Chilton scored his first win of the season – and his first in the BTCC for seven years – with victory ahead of BMW’s Colin Turkington in the final race of a wet weekend in Scotland.
Towards the end of the race Turkington looked set to threaten Chilton for victory, but the 33-year-old held on to become the 14th different winner of the season in inclement weather conditions, adding to his earlier results of 12th and sixth in races one and two respectively.
“The weekend has ended on a massive high for us – we couldn’t have wished for any more in those conditions,” said Chilton to TouringCars.Net. “It’s a rear-wheel drive circuit in those conditions.
“There’s a lot of grip on the new tarmac, which favours a rear-wheel drive car more than in the old days, when it would have favoured a front-wheel drive car. I knew that, and the circuit was drying, so I had all the odds against me.
“I had to really work at it, because I knew the speed that Colin Turkington was catching at, especially at the hairpin, was night-and-day.
“But then right at the end he just didn’t have what it took to get past me – although it made my heartbeat go up!
“This win was really important for the team, so I don’t think I was really going to let him past whatever happened.”
Despite having only slightly closed the gap in the standings with victory – which now stands at 65 points – the Ford Focus driver still feels that he has a shot at the overall trophy with two events and six races still to go.
“I believe it’s all up for grabs, I really do think that. People make mistakes with their ride heights and make errors because they’re all trying to push the window so hard because it’s so close.
“I just need Colin to make a mistake and I probably need to get another three or four podiums in the next six races.
“I want to try and win the championship, but if not the win then if I can finish in the top three in the British Championship, after finishing third in the World Championship last year, it would be great for me.”