Tom Onslow-Cole recovered from a qualifying crash to take two top ten finishes in round five of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park this weekend. The 20 year-old Team RAC driver, who started the first race from 18th position drove superbly to claim ninth in the 15-lap race but it was the third and final race at the Cheshire track that proved most successful for the Surrey ace.
Starting from 13th for the last race of the day after finishing in that position in race two, Tom made a stunning start and then capitalised on an incident to cross the line fifth at the end of the opening lap. Chasing down Darren Turner in fourth, Tom soon had first race winner Gordon Shedden breathing down his neck, but for several laps the BTCC newcomer held off the more experienced Shedden, until the Honda driver finally found a way past going into Old Hall corner.
Tom wasn’t giving up without a fight though, forcing Shedden to run wide and retaking the position at Island Hairpin, before Shedden barged his way back through at the same place the next lap. As the race neared its conclusion, Tom ran wide on the exit of Old Hall, spinning onto the grass and allowing Tom Chilton to take the place as he recovered to take seventh.
Race two had looked like producing another good result for the youngster and despite two lengthy safety car periods which allowed just a handful of racing laps, he produced a stirring drive from last to ninth, although he dropped to 13th at the flag. Starting ninth on the grid, he made up a few places at the lights, but in the wet conditions he slid wide at Cascades and only a fantastic piece of driving kept him out of the wall although he rejoined the race at the back of the field.
At the restart he began to claw his way through the field before another incident caused the safety car to be deployed again, and when racing resumed, he continued his charge getting up into ninth place before contact made with Tom Chilton, which upset the throttle body of the car, finally caused the throttle cable to slip off on the final lap and he slowed across the line finishing 13th.
“Overall it was a very frustrating weekend which began with the major crash in qualifying. Race one was a good clean race though, fairly uneventful in many ways, but I was pleased with my own performance and made some pretty good overtaking passes to get a strong finish and a reasonable grid position for race two.
“That one was hard and probably the most frustrating race of the day. Given that the track was wet and the BMW has superb traction off the line, I had been confident of a podium finish, and that could have been very much a possibility considering Colin’s performance and his victory. Having made a great start and gained some places, I ran wide at Cascades though and although I managed to keep it out of the wall, I rejoined dead last and sadly my drive through to ninth came to a halt when the throttle cable slipped off on the final lap.
“Race three was the best in terms of result and I had a great battle with Gordon and Tom and another points scoring finish was a good end to what had been an otherwise trying weekend.”
Following the final race Tom was seen by medics at the circuit and later airlifted to Chester Hospital as a precaution after he inhaled fumes from the inside of his BMW suspected to be as a result of accident damage. He was released late last night and stayed at a hotel nearby but is now back at home.
Tom’s two point-scoring results have consolidated his tenth place in the overall drivers championship and he’s now fourth in the Independents championship.
The next rounds of the championship take place at Donington Park in Leicestershire over the weekend of July 14/15.
Results of race one – 15 laps
1 Gordon Shedden Honda Civic 22:32.533
2 Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall Vectra 22:33.603
3 Colin Turkington BMW 320si 22:33.839
4 Matt Neal Honda Civic 22:34.244
5 Mat Jackson BMW 320si 22:35.482
6 Tom Chilton Vauxhall Vectra 22:38.624
9 Tom Onslow-Cole BMW 320si 22:47.630
Results of race two – 15 laps
1 Colin Turkington BMW 320si 32:24.747
2 Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall Vectra 32:24.793
3 Mike Jordan Honda Integra 32:25.735
4 Matt Neal Honda Civic 32:27.710
5 Jason Plato SEAT Leon 32:28.019
6 Mat Jackson BMW 320si 32:28.995
13 Tom Onslow-Cole BMW 320si 32:46.000
Results of race three – 17 laps
1 Mat Jackson BMW 320si 26:56.440
2 Jason Plato SEAT Leon 26:56.973
3 Darren Turner SEAT Leon 27:00.372
4 Gordon Shedden Honda Civic 27:00.542
5 Adam Jones SEAT Toledo 27:06.011
6 Tom Chilton Vauxhall Vectra 27:07.092
7 Tom Onslow-Cole BMW 320si 27:14.674
Championship positions after 15 rounds:
1 Fabrizio Giovanardi & Jason Plato 149 points
3 Matt Neal 97
4 Colin Turkington 93
5 Tom Chilton 87
6 Darren Turner 85
7 Mat Jackson 82
8 Gordon Shedden 79
9 Mike Jordan 71
10 Tom Onslow-Cole 57
