BRILLIANT DRIVING FROM VX RACING
Racing fans at Croft today saw a Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship master at work, as VX Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi dominated round 12 to score his fifth win of the season.
The Italian has now racked up more victories than any other driver this year, putting him second in the championship, just two points behind SEAT’s Jason Plato.
Victory was even sweeter for the team after a disappointing race earlier in the day that saw a retirement for Tom Chilton and a collision for Giovanardi, which knocked him down to 12th whilst challenging for a podium.
By the chequered flag the Vauxhall works driver had climbed back up to sixth, which gave him a starting position of fourth for the final race of the day thanks to the reverse-grid format. He took just three laps to snatch the lead, pulling out a 3.5 second gap from Team RAC's Tom Onslow-Cole, which he comfortably maintained until the flag.
Chilton says his weekend went wrong on Saturday, when he qualified 11th. After that, the 22-year-old concentrated on set-up and provided some of the most exciting wheel-to-wheel action in today’s three races at the North Yorkshire venue.
Fabrizio Giovanardi #5
“It was great to win today after the nightmare in the second race. I was really, really low, but when I’m low the pressure builds up in me like a champagne bottle.
“This win is important for me, for the crew, for everyone! Now I just have to keep my head and finish every race with points.
“Before I was happy to stay behind Plato and let him carry maximum ballast. Now, maybe it is time to gain a lot of points and say bye-bye to him! He is strong so I have to be careful not to get into any trouble.”
Tom Chilton #7
“I lost out on a lot of points this weekend. Effectively, it was two podiums, one in the second race when my car failed and potentially one in the third race because I would have started at the front if the second race had gone my way.
“I’m upset about that but we ended up changing stuff on the car and it went a lot better. We were struggling at the beginning of the meeting but at the end, I was right there with Matt Neal and I was reeling them back in; that’s a really good positive to take away.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I do; eat, sleep and breath motorsport. Obviously I’m going to be chatting to the team quite a lot about this weekend before Oulton Park, but I’m really looking forward to getting out again. I like anywhere I can race a car and Oulton Park is no exception.”
BTCC Drivers Championship 20071. Jason Plato (127); 2. Fabrizio Giovanardi (125); 3. Matt Neal (81); 4. Tom Chilton (75)
BTCC Manufacturers Championship1. Vauxhall (264); 2. SEAT (236)
BTCC Teams Championship1. VX Racing (190); 2. SEAT Sport UK (187); 3. Team Halfords (131)
BTCC Provisional Round 10 Race Result1. Colin Turkington (BMW 320si), 2. Gordon Shedden (Honda Civic), 3. Matt Neal (Honda Civic), 4. Darren Turner (SEAT Leon), 5. Mike Jordan (Honda Integra), 6. Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra),7. Jason Plato (SEAT Leon), 8. Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Vectra)
BTCC Provisional Round 11 Race Result1. Darren Turner (SEAT Leon), 2. Jason Plato (SEAT Leon), 3. Mike Jordan (Honda Integra), 4. Mat Jackson (BMW 320si), 5. Gareth Howell (SEAT Toledo), 6. Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra), 7. Tom Onslow-Cole (BMW 320si) 8. Jason Hughes (MG ZS), Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Vectra), DNF
BTCC Provisional Round 12 Race Result1. Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra), 2. Tom Onslow-Cole (BMW 320si), 3. Mat Jackson (BMW 320si), 4. Gordon Shedden (Honda Civic), 5. Darren Turner (SEAT Leon), 6. Matt Neal (Honda Civic), 7. Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Vectra), 8. Jason Plato (SEAT Leon)
