Tom Chilton capped a tough weekend's racing at Oulton Park by grabbing a fine top six place in the third race of the British Touring Car Championship meeting.

Race one was a typically fraught affair and the full quota of 42 kilos of success ballast in his works Honda Civic Type-R proved to be a real handicap. Nevertheless, Tom charged as hard as ever, hoping to grab 10th place and pole position for race two. He was in the think of the fight, even going into the last lap, but he could not find a way past Anthony Reid and finished in a frustrating 11th, the grid position he would start race two.

"The weight really took its toll," he said. "I was hoping when Reid backed the field up I would be able to pick up a few places, but it just wasn't to be."

The result meant Arena Motorsport was able to take 66 kilos of ballast out of Tom's car for race two. In its lighter guise the Civic was a much more competitive proposition. Tom made a great start and battled hard in the early stages to work his way up seventh. Once there he encountered Colin Turkington, who was in belligerent form. The pair duelled for almost the entire race, but Tom kept his head and avoided contact, while putting the MG driver under great pressure. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite find a way by and had to settle for seventh.

Tom backed up his race two result with yet another solid drive in race three. Once again he made a good start and hung onto the back of the battle for the lead during the early laps. The Oulton track had been coated with oil in a number of places prior to the race - most notably at the chicane and through the first turn. Because of this overtaking was particularly tough.

Hostilities were resumed with Turkington almost straight away, but this time Tom had the better of the MG driver. However, going into the hairpin, there was contact between the two and Tom was spun around. His car was undamaged and he quickly recovered, but three places had been lost. He quickly recovered one, and set a strong pace for the rest of the race, but he was too far back to recover all that he had lost.

"I should have been fourth in race three," he reckoned. "Colin just pushed me at the hairpin and just kept pushing me - it's just been Colin all day today. We've been in trouble with the brakes in every race and there's been an unusual issue with the engine too. At less than 80 percent throttle, the engine is accelerating and decelerating on its own, which is not what you need mid-corner.!"

Tom's results at Oulton Park have lifted him to seventh place in the overall standings. The next round of the championship is in two weeks' time in Ireland at the Mondello Park circuit. It's a tight and twisty go-kart-like track, where the racing is certain to be close and exciting.

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