Team Aon driver Tom Chilton finished fourth in race two of the weekend at the Knockhill Circuit in Scotland yesterday afternoon, after a tense battle for the lead in round 20 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. Team mate Tom Onslow-Cole fought back from an accident in race one to finish the race in 11th place, while Andy Neate crossed the line in 15th. Despite the 45kg of success ballast applied to his car following his race one win, Chilton once again made the most of his pole position in race two, to lead the field into the first corner. Once again the Honda drivers Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden were the closest rivals for Chilton, who nevertheless managed to pull out a two second gap within two laps. Behind the leaders, Onslow-Cole was making steady progress through the pack and was 15th by lap eight, while Neate was heading for the top ten in 13th. At the front Chilton was still leading with a comfortable gap from Neal, until the safety car emerged once again at the half way point. Chilton controlled the restart, but in pushing hard to break away from Neal, was beginning to lose the best of his tyres. In the next few laps, Neal piled on the pressure but Chilton drove defensively to maintain position. Running wide on the water spilt from Mat Jackson’s split radiator at Clarke, the Team Aon driver was suddenly sideways, and despite impressing the crowd with some serious car control, lost momentum which allowed Neal and the chasing pack to take advantage. Stuck on the outside line Chilton had dropped to fourth a few corners later, and had the BMW of Rob Collard in his mirrors. The pair were bumper to bumper in a fight that would last until the line. The racing action continued throughout the field, with Onslow-Cole still making up places and forcing his way past several cars. With damage to his left front bumper, Onslow-Cole was clearly a man on a mission, and was up to 11th. At the front, there was a close fight for fourth, with Collard putting Chilton under constant pressure. Despite struggling with tyres past their best Chilton held onto fourth place, finishing just 0.068 seconds ahead of Collard. Onslow-Cole meanwhile crossed the line in 11th, with Neate 15th. “I think I would have struggled to hold onto the lead in that race”, said Chilton. “I was pushing hard at the start to break away from Matt [Neal] which I managed to do, but when I saw the safety car was coming out my heart sank! I had a good restart and then concentrated on pushing again but I think I was really taking it out of my tyres. “If I hadn’t run wide on the water at Clarke, I could have won maybe, but it would have been hard keeping Matt behind me and you get such a train of cars here that if you lose one place, you’re likely to lose more. Generally though, I’m really happy, the car felt really strong again and we’re making good progress.”

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