BTCC

Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher. Serial point scorers

2 Mins read
Credit: Matt Sayle

Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher enjoyed a spate of points scoring finishes at Donington Park with Tom Chilton and James Cole grabbing four top ten finishes in a competitive grid of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Qualifying in greasy conditions saw Tom take a competitive eighth place and James twelfth, eager to make progress these positions can be fruitful if you stay out of trouble.

Chilton sadly didn’t do this in race one, although no fault of his own he was punted into a half spin which dropped his Motorbase prepared Ford Focus RS to the rear of the field. After fighting back to get into the points, a second incident meant the hard work was for nothing. Despite being at the back of the field again, Tom managed to set the fastest lap of the race highlighting that the RS does have the capability to be able to lead the field if it gets the opportunity to do so.

In a polarising opposite to the race that Tom had, James managed to battle his way to a fifth place finish at the flag scoring his best resuly since his victory at race one of Rockingham last year.

James followed this performance up with sixth in race two whilst Tom managed to claw his way through the field from the back to score a tenth place finish and a double points haul for the team.

With both drivers on the hard-compound Dunlop tyre in race three, Cole was to endure a race that Chilton found familiar from the first of the day. James was hit off into the gravel trap at the Old Hairpin on lap one and had to retire on the spot.

After the safety-car restart, Tom managed to keep his Focus RS out of relative trouble to finish the final race in ninth place. His best position of the whole weekend.

“It’s not been the weekend that we hoped for, but we do have the pace in the car which has been the most promising thing this weekend.” Said Tom Chilton after the event.

He continued, “Even though we got hit off in race 1, we fought our way through and took 3 finishes and fastest lap today. We’ve worked incredibly hard for our points this weekend; I’ve been very busy in the office!”

James Cole remained pleased with his work in race one and two, “From 12th in qualifying to 5th and 6th is a good result for us this weekend.

“Unfortunately race 3 killed off what could have been a really, really strong weekend for us. The hard tyre played a big part of that and the oversteer we experienced resulted in the accident that put us and another Motorbase car out of the race.”

With the pace that the car had shown. James remained buoyant about Thruxton, “It’s great that we finally got to show the potential of the car and team and moving forward we can take a lot of comfort in our pace.

“We’re in a good place going to Thruxton and we’ve yet to fully show what we’re capable of.”

405 posts

About author
A BTCC fan turned writer with two degrees in Journalism and Media from Nottingham Trent University. Outside of motorsport, Stuart is an admirer of the London Underground and is often found listening to music. Covers the British Touring Car Championship and Renault UK Clio Cup.
Articles
Related posts
BTCC

Ash Sutton regains BTCC Drivers' Championship with rampant race one win at Brands Hatch

2 Mins read
Imperious Ash Sutton took the BTCC Drivers’ title for a fourth time in the first race at Brands Hatch GP finishing off an incredible season.
BTCC

Turkington tops Silverstone reverse grid race with 150th race win for BMW

2 Mins read
Four-time BTCC champion, Colin Turkington may be all but out of the BTCC Drivers’ Championship hunt, but concluded Silverstone with a milestone…
BTCC

Sutton seals mind blowing Silverstone win from 23rd on the grid

2 Mins read
Ash Sutton is at it again in a drive that may have just sealed another BTCC Drivers’ Championship for the imperious NAPA…