Tom Chilton was left disappointed after a weekend that promised much yielded only a sixth and an eighth place.
Ahead of the latest round of the British Touring Car Championship round at Brands Hatch, Tom was optimistic of achieving a good result and his confidence was justified when his works Honda Civic Type R set the third fastest time in free practice. However, a small error on his best qualifying lap meant he didn’t repeat that form in qualifying, and with overtaking at the Indy circuit difficult if not impossible, a good track position for the first race was crucial. In the end, Tom recorded the sixth fastest time. It was a respectable effort, but he knew it could have been better.
"Going through Paddock Hill [the first corner] I had just a little bit of snap oversteer, but nothing serious, so I just thought if I keep the rest of the lap clean, I can set a good time. All through practice the only place where I had been making mistakes was at Druids, where I was locking my brakes. So I knew I had to get it just right, but I ended up braking too early. It was maybe only two metres, but it cost me two tenths and that’s the difference between sixth and third."
Tom was supported on the grid by the top 10 pop band VS. Their presence ensured he attracted a lot of attention but he kept his focus and from sixth position he made a reasonable getaway for race one, although he lost a place to the fast-starting SEAT of Rob Huff. Tom spent most of the rest of the race following the Toledo’s rear bumper without ever getting close enough to make a move that would stick. In the closing stages, Huff followed SEAT’s plan of dropping back to maximise his race two starting position, which allowed Tom up to sixth. Once ahead of Huff, Tom instantly set about chasing down the works Vauxhall Astra of Luke Hines, but despite a couple of stabs at a pass, he had to settle for sixth.
"It’s so hard to pass here, it shows how important qualifying is. I started sixth and finished sixth. If I’d qualified third, then I could have held on for a podium..."
Tom’s sixth place finish meant he lined up fifth for race two. This time he made a scorching start, but he could not fully capitalise on his great getaway after Huff and the Proton of Shaun Watson-Smith collided ahead of him and blocked his path. But Tom held fourth, which became third when Watson-Smith spun off. However, Tom was knocked back to fourth when Huff muscled his way through at Surtees on the same lap.
With Watson-Smith’s car stuck in the gravel, the safety car was sent out. This bunched up the field and allowed James Thompson to close the gap on Tom. On the restart Thompson tried to pass Tom into Druids, but left his braking too late and whacked into the back of the Civic. The impact forced Tom’s bumper onto the left rear tyre, which forced Tom to pit to change the tyre and have the bodywork removed and his race was effectively over.
"He smacked me really hard," said Tom. "It ruined my race. Up until then the car was really good and I know we could have taken a good result from that race. It’s very annoying."
From 13th on the grid Tom knew he would have his work cut out to pull a good result out of the bag in race three, but he kept out of trouble in the early laps and found himself on the edge of the top 10 and a championship point. The turning point of the race came with just a handful of laps to go. James Kaye crashed his Honda at Druids, prompting yet another safety car period. This created a one-lap ‘dash to the flag’ scenario, which proved to be one of the most exciting and action-packed laps in recent years. Tom kept a calm head despite the chaos that was going on around him, and picked up two places through Graham Hill bend to snatch an unlikely eighth place finish.
"After ballsing up the restart in race two I thought I’d better get this one right," he said. "I knew that something would happen on that last lap. I decided to just keep my cool - I think I’ve been really composed this weekend - and see what happened. To go from 13th to eighth is pretty good I reckon, but all in all I think the weekend was a bit of a missed opportunity. That’s motor racing, though. The car should be awesome at Snetterton [the next round of the series], so I’ll just concentrate on getting myself ready for that now."
Arena boss Mike Earle was disappointed with the weekend’s results, but pleased with Tom’s overall performance.
"The weekend started well with third fastest in practice and then went backwards," he said. "Tom did a good job, but the incident with Thompson in the second race ruined it for him. He drove very well in the third race to come back from 13th. Tom has just been getting better and better as the year’s moved on. It’s easy to forget that he’s just 19. The basic speed is clearly there, but he’s really improved his feedback and getting what he wants from the car."
Tom now lies 10th in the championship on 87 points. The next round of the series is at Snetterton on September 5.
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