Rob Collard said that West Surrey Racing are employing no team orders in the remainder of the 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, after winning race one of the day at Knockhill.
The WSR man added to his wins at Brands Hatch and Croft with victory in the opening race of the day at a sun-kissed Fife circuit, rounding his team-mate Sam Tordoff in the early stages of the race in a bold move at Duffus Dip before coming out on top in a three-way fight for the win.
Collard passed both his team-mate Andy Priaulx and then the Ford Focus of Mat Jackson in consecutive laps, the BMW man adding a fifth win at Knockhill.
“It was a tough race, but I found it quite easy as well as tough”, Collard told The Checkered Flag after the opening encounter.
“We have good balance in the car and I love this track. Our performance just seems to jump up, and after qualifying yesterday was strong I knew that being in that top-five area meant that I could do a good job with an awesome race car.”
On his dice with Tordoff, Collard added: “It was a brave move. We discussed things tactically before the race and said we’d be kind to each other and not run each other out of room.
“I was hoping that Andy would let me through early but he made me earn it on merit! There’s no team orders here, other than not to hit each other – that got reinforced after Snetterton and again yesterday.
“The last thing I wanted to do was make a lunge on [Sam] but it opened up very nicely.”
Team-mate Tordoff emerged from the race fourth after a late recovery on the harder compound tyre, one which Collard will run in the second race of the day.
He added: “It’s a good omen for me then, so now that I’ve got maximum ballast and the harder tyre our theory might have worked out. We wanted to get the soft tyre out of the way and fingers crossed we can do it again in race two.”
