A fine victory in the first race as well as a third place made Silverstone another successful meeting for Tom and the Arena Motorsport team. He was the highest points scorer over the three rounds again and moved up in the Championship points table

Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions gave a good indication of how competitive Tom would be around the short National circuit at Silverstone. The Lego Star Wars sponsored entry topped the time sheets in the second free practice session despite the car not being quite to Tom’s liking;

“ I wasn’t really happy with the car in practice and we didn’t have the gear ratios quite right either so I was surprised to be quickest. “

With changes made for the qualifying session Tom was fairly confident of a strong performance, but it was late in the session when he set a lap time that would put him 2nd on the grid;

“ It was a bit frustrating because every lap I came upon a problem. Either a slower car or loads of dirt spread over the track. That ruined my early laps and even on the lap that put me 2nd I had to go off line and lost a fraction of time. Gareth Howell beat me to pole by a couple of tenths, but without the problems I think I could have matched him. Oh well, the front row is OK, I will actually start from the inside of the grid here at Silverstone, so I’m not that disappointed really. “

Round 25.

Tom lined up his Arena Motorsport Honda on the front row and got a fantastic start to brave it out neck and neck with Howell’s Integra on the run down to the first corner. Tom had the inside line and didn’t give an inch. Holding a slight advantage through to the exit, that was all he needed to out-brake Howell into Beckets and take a clear lead as the field ran down the long back straight.

At the end of the first lap, Tom led by inches and had Howell all over his rear bumper. This is a situation he has been in several times before. Having five wins under his belt now in the BTCC, Tom’s experience of leading is increasing all the time and he drove defensively over the opening laps until Howell made a mistake. The Integra driver ran wide on the entry to Beckets and handed Tom enough of a gap so he could relax a little, take the optimum racing line and push hard to build on his advantage.

Any thoughts of an easy race quickly evaporated as the safety car came out on lap 5 to allow the marshals to recover Dan Eaves’ gravel trapped Integra. Tom made a good re-start and held a half-second lead from the now 2nd placed James Pickford in the SEAT.

Apart from a brief moment of concern, Tom drove away comfortably to his fourth win of the year. It wasn’t easy though;

“ That was quite hard work. This short National circuit at Silverstone doesn’t give you many opportunities to get a big gap. I did manage to get away from Gareth in the first few laps but then the safety car came out. After the restart I built up a lead over James of something like a second, but then I made a small mistake at Beckets and that let him back onto me again. I just pushed as hard as I possibly could through the corners because those lighter SEATs are so quick in a straight line. I had to defend again for a couple of laps and then the gap went back up and over the last couple of laps James was never close enough to challenge me. I’m really happy with that. Very pleased for the team and I have to say what a fantastic job the guys at Langford Performance Engineering have done with the engine. That is the strongest Honda engine I have ever had. It is absolutely brilliant and without that I’m sure the SEAT would have beaten me, so a very big thank you to Dick and Mark for doing such a great job. “

Round 26.

Starting from pole, on the outside of the grid, Tom again got his Civic type R off the line well and led the field over the opening lap. Under huge pressure from Jason Plato, Tom drove defensively and held the lead for the first four laps. Then on the fifth lap, Plato suddenly turned into Tom and hit him into a spin. At very high speed, Tom had been knocked out of the lead and miraculously managed to keep the 360º spin under control and his Honda on the tarmac;

“ That was scary. I can’t believe what Plato did. He was really out of order and bloody dangerous. There is no gravel trap on the straight and I could have gone straight into the wall. I was lucky to stay on the track when he spun me, but afterwards I had a bad vibration and just couldn’t keep up any sort of pace.”

Inspection after the race revealed that the spin had flat-spotted his tyres down to the canvas and slowing right down was a wise decision to reduce the chance of a puncture. It also made it an obvious decision for the team to tell Tom to drive for a 10th place finish to try and get pole for the final race.

There then followed the unusual sight of Tom deliberately letting people past him over the final few laps;

“ That was quite strange having to slow down and let people through. Some drivers went straight past me but others didn’t really want to. It’s a funny feeling and not really one that I enjoy, but the reverse grid thing is part of touring Cars so it was the right situation to take advantage of the regulations. “Tom actually crossed the line in 9th place, meaning he should have started the last race of the day from the front row again. In a further twist however, Jason Plato’s attack on Tom did not escape the Stewards’ notice. They investigated the incident, finding Plato guilty of dangerous driving. He was disqualified from the win he went on to get, had his licence endorsed and will suffer a grid penalty at the next BTCC meeting at Brands Hatch. With Plato’s disqualification, Tom moved up to 8th and would therefore start the final race from 3rd on the grid.

Round 27.

As the lights changed Tom got a great start and latched onto the tail of Rob Collard’s leading MG in 2nd place. The pair of them drove a superb opening lap and pulled out an impressive lead with Tom close enough to start to look for a way through.

Then the safety car was deployed, undoing Tom and Collard’s good work as the field all bunched up again. At the restart the leading pair couldn’t repeat the earlier advantage and Tom found himself under pressure from Howell in the Integra. He managed to keep Howell behind him for several laps without dropping away from Collard; the three of them comfortably clear of the rest of the field.

Then on lap 9 Howell got a better run out of Luffield corner and inched alongside Tom’s Honda;

“ Gareth got a better exit than me and was on the inside down to Copse.  After that he took the lead and I ran close to Rob for the rest of the race, but there was never enough of an advantage to get past and follow Gareth through. “

Tom harried the MG for the remaining 15 laps, never more than a few feet apart, but couldn’t find a way through;

“ I was quicker through Copse but couldn’t really overtake into the next corner at Beckets. He had more straight-line speed down the back straight so I couldn’t ever have a go at Brooklands either. I’m not that disappointed though; to finish on the podium again is a good result. “

So Tom finished 3rd and stood on the podium for the 9th time this season. For the second time this year Tom scored more points from the three races than anybody else and moved up the Championship points table to 5th place overall.