Tom Onslow-Cole had a day of highs and lows in the penultimate round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill today. The 20 year-old Team RAC driver drove a storming opening race from eighth on the grid, passing two cars off the line into sixth and enjoyed a huge battle with championship leader Jason Plato before moving ahead on lap eight.
Two laps later he’d closed down the gap to Fabrizio Giovanardi who held up the BTCC newcomer for four laps enabling Plato to close up again. For several laps a five-way battle ensued for fifth until a collision at the front between race leader Darren Turner and second-placed Gordon Shedden resulted in Shedden’s retirement and moved Tom up to fourth.
With a hard-charging Plato behind, Tom held his nerve and the position for seven laps whilst closing again on Giovanardi and when the Italian left a gap at the Chicane on the penultimate lap, Tom wasted no time in diving up the inside. On the entry to Carlube, the pair touched and Giovanardi slid off the track, enabling Tom to have a clear run to the flag and he crossed the line fourth.
“Giovanardi was brake-testing me before the chicane because that was my strongest area and I knew I could attack him under braking. On the penultimate lap, I left enough of a gap so he couldn’t brake-test me but I could still catch him through the chicane. I did that and landed just behind him with a lot of extra speed so I immediately moved to the inside of him and started making up ground to the inside of his car.
“I got up alongside him, between the front and back door, going into Carlube and hit the brakes when I needed to. He braked later and tried to come back round the outside and turned in on his normal line, obviously he shouldn’t have done that because I was already there.
“Unfortunately in the judicial room they didn’t have my in-car camera footage which is a shame because all the footage they showed wasn’t actually very clear at all, they were either head-on or straight from behind where you can’t see too much. Although I was penalised I’m sticking to my guns and still believe it was a genuine move.”
Tom was later excluded for his part in the incident which sadly relegated him to the back of the grid for race two. In that, another great start off the line moved him ahead of four cars before the completion of the opening lap but a recurring clutch problem, which had intermittently caused problems in the first race, returned making it hard for the youngster to downchange and leaving him unable to finish higher than 13th.
“That exclusion in race one really did ruin the whole weekend. We were already coming back from a bad qualifying from which we did well to finish fourth, but then you’re on the back foot starting dead last for race two. Also we developed a clutch problem, the first problem we’ve had this year and it really hurt us. We have a great strength off the line but with the clutch how it was it I dropped quite a lot on everyone else. During the first few laps there was no clutch at all so the downshifts were very, very jerky, which really unsettles the car and makes it hard to build up any flow. Between races the boys at Team RAC did a great job to change it and they even had time for lunch!”
The day’s third and final race saw Tom line up 13th and a good start saw him hold position off the line. A mid-race battle for 10th with Tom Chilton and Gavin Smith eventually went in his favour, earning him a total of eight points towards the Independents Championship battle.
“Overall it’s been a day of ups and downs, sadly the ups were taken away from us and the downs were pretty steady but we’ve still taken eight points which is better than nothing. It’s a very hard track to overtake on so that last race was particularly difficult.”
Results of Round 25:
1. Darren Turner SEAT Leon 21:45.478
2. Colin Turkington BMW 320si 21:47.132
3. Jason Plato SEAT Leon 21:01.113
4. Tom Onslow-Cole BMW 320si 22:01.469
5. Adam Jones SEAT Toledo 22:02.381
6. Mike Jordan Honda Integra 22:02.697
Excl Tom Onslow-Cole
Results of Round 26:
1. Darren Turner SEAT Leon 21:36.562
2. Colin Turkington BMW 320si 21:37.098
3. Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall Vectra 21:44.767
4. Gordon Shedden Honda Civic 21:45.123
5. Jason Plato SEAT Leon 21:45.503
6. Matt Neal Honda Civic 21:45.832
13. Tom Onslow-Cole BMW 320si 22:07.281
Results of Round 27:
1. Gordon Shedden Honda Civic 21:48.929
2. Matt Neal Honda Civic 21:49.423
3. Jason Plato SEAT Leon 21:50.075
4. Mike Jordan Honda Integra 21:50.858
5. Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall Vectra 21:51.407
6. Colin Turkington BMW 320si 21:52.173
10. Tom Onslow-Cole BMW 320si 22:04.353
Championship positions after 27 rounds:
1 Jason Plato 265
2 Fabrizio Giovanardi 256
3 Gordon Shedden 188
4 Matt Neal 172
5 Colin Turkington 171
6 Darren Turner 155
7 Mat Jackson 132
8 Mike Jordan 127
9 Tom Chilton 115
10 Tom Onslow-Cole 107
