Mixed weekend at Sneterton for for Team Aon

It was a mixed weekend for Team Aon at Snetterton for rounds 16, 17 and 18 of the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. Following a strong qualifying session which saw two of the team’s cars qualify in the top ten, the weekend failed to yield the results the team were hoping for. Race one saw Chilton get off the line well, making up two positions by the end of the first lap whilst avoiding the spinning car of Matt Neal.  Onslow-Cole also got away cleanly and had made up one place. By the end of the third lap Frank Wrathall was catching him and after some brilliant defending Chilton ran wide and Wrathall got past.Running well within in the points, Chilton was in a strong position , however on the last lap his car developed an electrical problem which left him to slip down the order to ninth. Just ahead of him Onslow-Cole finished eighth while Neate was sixteenth.Race two was one of mixed results for Team Aon, Andy Neate retired after contact damaged his steering rack. Meanwhile Onslow-Cole was running well in eighth position despite reporting understeer through the corners, but despite his best efforts Mat Jackson passed him on lap five relegating Onslow-Cole to ninth. Chilton was closing in on Rob Collard for P11 when a further problem with the electronics in his car meant that the best he could finish was twelfth. A mechanical problem for Franck Wrathall ensured that Onslow-Cole finished in P8.Race three saw more misfortune for the team. Following Neate’s earlier steering problems, he was still having issues and was once again forced to retire early on in race three. Onslow-Cole had been running within the top 10 for the majority of the race however could only manage to finish in eleven – just outside a points paying position.Chilton had been catching Tony Gillham but after a lengthy battle was unable to make up any places, and finished thirteenth.Tom Onslow-Cole said “It’s been a difficult day; the weather has been changing quite a lot which has affected the track. We come away with a bit more information about the car so we can continue to improve for Knockhill.“We’ll re-group, go through everything that we have learnt and come back stronger.”Reflecting on his weekend, Tom Chilton said, “I feel that my electrical problem during race one put me on the back foot for the rest of the weekend. I would have finished fifth in that race so that made my position difficult for race two.“The track was changing so much so I stayed with my qualifying set-up throughout today. The pace is definitely there though, we just need a bit of good fortune to go with it.”

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