Sam Tordoff and Rob Collard both made it onto the podium in a frenetic final Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone last weekend, the West Surrey Racing duo praising “hard, fair racing”.
The BMW 125i pairing started up near the front in race three of the day, the German manufacturer enjoying a strong weekend which saw Andy Priaulx win in race two before the JCT600 with GardX team-mates made it a double podium in the final encounter of the afternoon.
Collard had taken an early lead but was usurped by Team BMR‘s Colin Turkington early on at Brooklands corner, leaving the former battling for second with team-mate Tordoff. Both swapped places twice tactically during the race after brief contact, Collard earning runner-up honours as the duo’s teamwork couldn’t quite take the fight to Turkington.
On the final race, Tordoff told The Checkered Flag: “I made a good start and then just settled in. Unfortunately, Colin just got away. He put a great move on Rob; I really though that once Rob was in the lead that he’d be gone.
“In the first few laps I was busy with James Cole’s Ford, so by the time we’d dispatched him, Colin was gone.”
Both WSR BMWs made slight side-to-side contact as Tordoff lunged inside his team-mate at Brooklands during their battle, teamwork soon settling in between the pair who avoided a repeat of their Snetterton incident.
Tordoff added: “I though that third would be the best I could get but I felt racy and, after much persuasion, Rob decided to try and do a bit of teamwork which I’m grateful for, because we had a bit of a tangle before then.
“I was trying, but then I realised that I’d have to force my way past, so I really was trying and then he let me past. We had the agreement that I had to catch Colin, which I didn’t manage to do so I gave him the place back.”
Collard echoed his team-mate’s analogy of the pair’s battle in race three, saying: “We’re working together on behalf of Team JCT600 with GardX so it was important that we remained professional and brought the cars home.
“We battled hard, but fair, so I am delighted that both Sam and I got to enjoy this moment together on the podium. We knew Silverstone wouldn’t be our best track but the BMW was still strong and we scored a good haul of points – roll on Brands Hatch.”
Tordoff, still an outsider in the title chase, admitted that he hopes to steal fifth spot in the championship through more of the same teamwork, saying: “Realistically, If we have a good weekend then we might nick fifth place off Andrew Jordan.
“We had a strange time on the soft tyre”, Tordoff added. “I can only only think it’s something to do with the track or temperatures because, on the controlled tyre, we were quite good, so we need to work on the soft tyre at Brands Hatch because it will be colder there.”
