BTCC

Competitive Collard Feeling “More At One” With BMW

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Rob Collard enjoyed another competitive outing in the eBay Motors BMW 125i at the second British Touring Car Championship round at Donington Park, leaping up to seventh place in the championship.

The 45-year-old – consistently a front-runner at Brands Hatch – charged through from 13th on the grid in the opening race of the day at the Leicester venue to finish ahead of team-mate Colin Turkington in fourth position, narrowly missing out on the podium.

Collard was then running third following a lightning start in the second race, however his day was blunted when a moment heading through the daunting Craner Curves in the freshly-dampened conditions, following an early safety car restart, saw the BMW swap ends and spin alarmingly into retirement through the gravel at Old Hairpin.

“Race one was fantastic to come through from where we started, which was a great result,” Collard told The Checkered Flag afterwards.

“A little bit disappointed with qualifying yesterday, so to make up all those places again in race one was great, and a fantastic result for eBay Motors.”

Collard bemoaned the off he had in race two however, adding: “Race two was disappointing because we got into a rhythm, and then the safety car came out.

“We pushed again when the safety car came in, and i just took a little bit too much of the inside kerb come through Craners and it unsettled the car and put it into a big slide at 120mph – I couldn’t hold that.”

The WSR driver made a sterling fightback from 28th on the grid in the final race of the day, charging through to seventh place ahead of team-mate Nick Foster to confirm his own adaptation to the BMW 125i is continuously improving.

“It’s so much more competitive now with 31 cars out there, so it gets a bit frantic! Especially in qualifying now it’s more difficult”, concluded Collard, who lies seventh in the championship after six races.

“The pace is there, and I’m a lot more at one with the car now compared to how it was last year. I’m now really excelling in this car and we’re taking the fight to Colin all the time which is good.”

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