Jack Clarke enjoyed his best result of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season at Silverstone, collecting a 10th place finish in race two of the day of which he was involved in Rob Collard’s frightening accident.
The BTCC rookie climbed up the field to reach his first top-10 finish of the campaign on Sunday, battling past the works Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Tourer of Gordon Shedden along the way.
The final lap of the race however saw a dramatic accident for the West Surrey Racing BMW of Collard, who was collected by a half-spinning Clarke and sent into a barrel roll after the Motorbase Ford Focus was tagged by Shedden heading out of Becketts.
“I came together with Gordon Shedden at Becketts; he gave me a bit of a tap on the exit and it put me sideways”, Clarke told TCF after the second race.
“It wasn’t a criminal move really, it just put me sideways and into the path of Rob. It was kind of a racing incident – a bit of rough and tumble between me and Gordon – and unfortunately an innocent party had to suffer.
“Rob’s a bit shaken, but I’ve heard he’s alright which is most encouraging. Sometimes the odds are that these things are going to happen at some point.”
The result sees Clarke having scored points in both races at Silverstone with one more remaining, and the youngster admitted that the improvements in performance have been encouraging.
“I’m pretty happy, although it would have been nice to draw pole position!” added Clarke. “We do have the pace here and if we were the make a good start then I’m sure we could have stayed there.
“That race was a bit more stressful because I just wanted to get over the line with a top-10 finish, it’s a shame what happened but I’m still buzzing to get that result. It would have been nicer had that incident not happened obviously.
“I’m just excited about the prospect of where our pace is at the moment, and just enjoying myself.”
Clarke will start 10th in race three of the day at 17:17, now lying 19th in the championship.
