Rounds 13, 14 and 15.

The BTCC's annual trip to Ireland brought huge disappointment for Tom as a car problem robbed him of a podium finish in race two, but three solid performances and a reasonable points haul were some consolation

Tom was disappointed with his qualifying laps on Saturday and had to start the first race from the fifth row;

" I never really got the two slowest corners right " explained the teenager, " I was braking too hard, upsetting the balance and losing a lot of time. The good news is I'm right on the pace around the rest of the track, but that's not enough. "

Tom's start from 9th was a good one though and he quickly passed Watson-Smith's Proton off the line and finished the first lap in 8th place. In an unusually processional race, Tom gained another place, passing ex-champion Plato for 7th and held that position to the chequered flag.

" I'm pleased with that. It is very tough to overtake here and nobody made any mistakes so I had to settle for 7th. That gives me a second row start for race two, not much ballast and more importantly, some more points in the championship. I've also improved a lot through the two tight hairpins - I've found a lot of time there so hopefully we can go forwards from here."

In race two he did. Another good start and even though Tom was forced to the outside of the first hairpin he toughed it out and emerged in 3rd place. With only the lightweight Seats in front, Tom set about challenging for 2nd, but the ETCC spec Seats - over 100kgs lighter than Tom's Honda -  just had too much of an advantage, as he later explained;

" I could not do anything about Plato or Huff in the Seats, we are at a big disadvantage against them now that Alan Gow has reduced their weight further. I knew I had to try and get past them early because as they are so light they don't work their tyres as hard as us in the BTCC cars, so towards the end of the race their advantage is even greater. "

Tom had a good go at Huff on lap 4, but couldn't quite pull off the move and the Seats started to pull away. Now his attention would be on his mirrors as a three-car Vauxhall attack was looming. Tom drove his socks off to keep ex champion Thompson and the rest behind him and in the middle of the race, started to pull out a small gap. However that was all about to change as on lap 10 something on the car broke;

" I didn't know what happened. All of a sudden I had no grip under braking or turning into right-handers. I also lost traction out of all the corners. I tried to drive around the problem but I knew it was only a matter of time before Thompson and the others would pass me."

It was a huge disappointment for the youngster. Having driven so well and with just four laps to go the inevitable happened as first Thompson then the other two Vauxhalls filed past. A problem was obvious to the team as a few corners later the two works MG's also passed the struggling Honda and Tom had no choice but to try and bring the car home. A 9th place finish was the eventual result, but Tom had deserved so much more.

" I'm gutted but what could I do? The car was brilliant up to then. At least I still finished in the points. The team are flat out trying to locate the problem and hopefully it can be fixed for the last race. "

The problem was traced to the nearside front corner and could be cured for the last race. Tom was also moved up to 8th place in the results following Robert Huff's exclusion for dangerous driving.

The third and final race turned out to be more like a demolition derby. Tom again got away well and held his 8th place over the opening laps. One by one cars were tripping over each other and crashing out until eventually the safety car had to be deployed to retrieve a growing list of wrecks lining the edge of the track. Tom's race up to this point had also been eventful, battling with Thompson and Muller again as well as the lighter Independent class Hondas of Matt Neal and Dan Eaves until Neal's off track excursion and the resulting safety car period.

When the race resumed with four laps to go the panel bashing continued. Leader Plato was knocked out of the race, as was Reid in the MG while Tom managed to avoid most of the trouble to resume battle with Thompson and Eaves. By now though, this battle was over 3rd, 4th and 5th places and was very close as Tom recalled after the race;

" The last few laps after the safety car came in were good fun.   That was really close, I thought I could get by Thompson, but by then all our tyres were getting past their best and I couldn't get by cleanly. I think all three of us crossed the finish line virtually side by side, I didn't quite out-drag them out of the last corner, but it was close. "

Very close, just fractions of a second separating the three. Tom had come home 5th, to round off a solid weekend's performance. He had moved up a place in the overall points standings as well

There is a six-week break now before the action resumes at Croft in Yorkshire on 25th July.

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