Aron Smith went as far to describe his successful Silverstone weekend as the best of his BTCC career, after claiming two podium finishes at the Northampton venue.
The Airwaves Racing squad had a weekend to look back on with happiness after watching a trio of top 10 finishes for both Smith and Mat Jackson in rounds 25, 26 and 27 of the 2013 campaign, a storming drive from eighth to the podium in race two by Smith being the first of the day’s notable highlights.
The Irishman carved his way up the field on the softer Dunlop tyre compound to narrowly miss out on victory behind the battling Jason Plato and Andrew Jordan, before avoiding a collision between Matt Neal and Sam Tordoff in the final race to inherit a second visit to the rostrum – his fourth of the season.
“The best weekend of my career!” Smith declared afterwards. “I owe it all to everyone at Airwaves racing; I’m the same driver I am every other weekend and this weekend the car was absolutely fantastic.
With a spring in his step, Smith heads to the Brands Hatch finale full of positive attitude, adding: “Our package is one to beat now going to Brands – we can go to our home circuit full of confidence, and I’m quite optimistic about what we can do.”
Team-mate Jackson’s fourth place in the final race ended a strong visit to Silverstone for David Bartrum‘s Ford Focus squad, Jackson adding: “It’s a great result for everyone at Airwaves Racing to be in the mix and on the podium again after Rockingham’s successes.
“A positive weekend for the team as a whole. We’ve had a lot of contact which had set us back in all three races, but we managed to salvage a good result in the last race.”
In contrast, new recruit Tom Onslow-Cole had a difficult second meeting with his new team that included being caught in an opening lap accident with Rob Austin and Frank Wrathall in race two, but remained optimistic that the team will have a strong season closer on October 12/13 at the Brands Hatch GP circuit.
“This weekend has been a nightmare to be honest; with lots of problems”, said Onslow-Cole. “It’s always going to be a gamble coming somewhere to try impress and do a good job with only three rounds, but what’s frustrating is that we’re actually very quick.
“Hopefully we’ve got all the bad luck out of the way now and we’ll have a storming Brands Hatch.”
