Rounds 4,5 and 6   Thruxton.

Qualifying

Tom Chilton had topped the timesheets in free practice on Saturday morning so had high hopes for a strong performance in the afternoon’s 30 minute qualifying session. Nobody though could have predicted by how much him and his Arena prepared Honda Civic would dominate the session. Tom left the pits at the head of the field, did two warm up laps and then went for it. As he came back across the line to finish his flying lap, the timing screens flashed up Chilton, first place, with a lap time over half a second faster than his nearest rival. Tom then brought his car back to the pits and parked it in the garage, relaxed, watched and waited to see if anyone could respond. They couldn’t. Jason Plato got closest in the lighter SEAT and although it would prove unnecessary, Arena decided to send Tom back out with just a few minutes of the session remaining in case anybody put a quick lap together at the end of the session. On this second run, Tom again lapped quick enough for pole position, but it was his earlier, faster lap that gave him the half second margin over the field and his first ever BTCC pole position. Tom was understandably over the moon, and a little surprised as he explained afterwards;

“ That was fantastic. The car felt awesome and I think I drove as good a lap as I have ever done. I’m so pleased for the team, they have worked day and night since we decided to return to the championship to get the car ready and this pole position is great for them as well. We really didn’t know before we came here how competitive we would be and this is a surprise really. I just shows what a good car we developed last season because it hasn’t been changed for this race, it is just as it was at the last race last year at Donington. “

Round 4

The start lights went out and Tom shot into the lead from his pole position and led the field across the line at the end of the first lap. His leading margin was slight over a hard charging Plato, but Tom had things under control;

“ I was told to be quite careful over the kerbs for the first couple of laps as the tyres need to come up to the correct temperature and pressure before I can hit the kerbs hard. That was quite tricky because Jason was closing up on me into the chicane. “

With the initial laps safely completed, Tom started to push harder, using the kerbs, and steadily pulled out a gap over Plato. With each lap the gap grew and Tom was looking comfortable, setting fastest race lap by half a second in the process. Then disaster. On lap 7 his left front tyre suffered a puncture, probably from running over some debris, and a certain victory was gone. Tom limped back to the pits and the team replaced the destroyed tyre to enable Tom to at least finish the race. He did manage to bring the car home in 10th place, little consolation after such a dominant display;

“ Obviously I’m gutted. That should have been a comfortable win but these things can happen. I did everything to look after the tyres on the opening laps, but I must have hit some debris or something and that punctured the tyre. At least my race pace looks strong enough to still get a good result in the other two races.”

The 10th place finish would put Tom 10th on the grid for race two. What could he achieve from there ?

Round 5

Tom got a good start and immediately looked for a way past the Astras and SEATs in front but to no avail, they blocked him at the complex and the chicane on the first lap so Tom was held back in 9th place. The field was closely packed and a couple of good moves past Turkington in the Astra and Collard’s MG saw Tom move up to 7th , closing in on the SEAT pair of Luke Hines and Jason Plato. Hines defended hard, but was no match for Tom in his Honda and it only took a lap for Tom to slip through. He rapidly caught Plato and for the remainder of the race was battling hard with the former champion. Tom tried everything he could but didn’t find a way through, finishing in 6th place.

“ Plato was very clever in that race, he has so much experience. I had a faster car through the corners but those SEATs are very quick in a straight line and Jason blocked in all the right places. He certainly taught me a few things about defending. If I could have got past some of the field earlier I think I could have had a better result, but by the time I caught Jason my tyres were past their best. “

With the reverse grid format for the final race, Tom would line up on the grid in 5th place.

Round 6

A fantastic start and Tom charged towards the first corner looking to capitalise on his great getaway. Unfortunately things didn’t work out well. Tom explains;

“ I got one of the best starts I’ve ever got and as we approached the first corner I saw the two Vauxhalls battling with each other and they left a gap on the inside which I had to go for. Unfortunately they kept coming over on me and I had nowhere to go except on the grass. As soon as I hit the grass I had no chance of slowing down, the brakes locked and I slid into one of the Vauxhalls and the damage to my car was pretty severe.”

That put Tom out of the race and ended a very mixed weekend.

“ What a frustrating weekend. I had a brilliant Saturday; I’m really pleased with my qualifying performance. I should have won the opening race but for the puncture. We now know that the Honda Civic still seems to have the speed to be competitive this season so hopefully I can get another chance at Brands Hatch in the next rounds.”

Tom’s attention will now be on his test in the Le Mans prototype at Magny Cours on Tuesday and Wednesday. A report on that will appear here later this week. The next rounds of the BTCC will be at Brands on 5th June.