MICHAEL Bentwood rounded off his season in fine style at Donington Park in the last meeting of the 2004 Green Flag British Touring Car Championship when he took a fourth place finish in the first race of the day.
Bentwood made the most of difficult qualifying conditions and in the end was disappointed not to have ended the session higher than eighth. “We were very competitive in the wet free practice session,” says Michael, “and when the track was wettest we we’re fourth.”
“Qualifying was a bit bizarre. Everybody set their time in the first three laps, when the track was at it’s wettest and then that was it, nobody went any quicker.”
As the track dried Bentwood resorted to trying something unusual for a driver schooled in single-seaters. “We tried running with wet tyres on the rear and slicks on the front, which is an old touring car trick, but it didn’t make any difference,” says Michael.
Although Michael felt he could have qualified in the top four he was positive about the race, “in these sort of conditions it levels the playing field. There’s less in the cars and it comes down more to driver skill, so I know we can improve in the race from eighth”
The 26-year-old from Hale made the most of his grid slot by making another good start, something he has been doing all season and was up into fourth by the end of the second lap.
Once established in fourth Bentwood started to reel in Turkington and Thompson with a string of consistent laps. “They were battling hard,” says Michael, “and I was able to close up, but then they’d pull away again.”
Fourth place was a just reward for Bentwood after the disappointment of the previous meeting. “We were definitely down on power at Snetterton, but I kept the pressure on Vauxhall to make sure the engine was up to scratch for Donington.”
Bentwood started the second race from seventh on the grid due to the reverse grid rule, but with 30kgs of success ballast to contend with.
“I made a good start,” says Michael, “but I was completely hindered by Hines, who made a dreadful start, and then I took a huge hit from Matt Neal in the side which gave me a puncture.”
“After that I lost 10% of the pressure in the tyre every lap, and by lap six, the tyre just came completely off the rim, and I had to retire.”
That meant Bentwood had to start the final race of the day from the back of the grid. “I really went for it at the start, but ended up having contact with Pyper which put me into a major spin.”
Bentwood pitted for new tyres under the safety car, but had little chance of making it to the front. “This championship is so competitive and the races are so short,” says Michael, “that once you lose that much ground there’s not much you can do.”
