Irish adventure ends with success at Mondello Park

Rounds 16, 17 & 18 of the 2005 British Touring Car Championship at Mondello Park
July 23/24, 2005

Frantic final race as Rob fights back for podium spot

Just a week after racing at Croft, Rob and the West Surrey Racing team headed over to Ireland for rounds 16, 17 and 18 of the 2005 British Touring Car Championship at Mondello Park. With podium positions proving elusive since the first outing of the year at Donington Park, Rob was hoping to improve on his fourth place finish at Croft. And what a weekend it proved to be.

Saturday at Mondello was wet and wild with the trend for the day being set early on. The first free practice session was stopped by two red flags, while the second session had three. The thirty-minute qualifying session was equally as troublesome, with a further three stoppages. In the difficult conditions and the stop-start session, the end result for Rob was ninth position on the grid for Sunday’s first race.

The team stayed late at the circuit on Saturday night in search of a strong setup for the car, and despite the changed weather conditions, which were an improvement over the previous day’s torrential rain, there were early signs that the MG was looking strong.

Rob held his ground at the start to the first race of the day, and quickly gained a couple of places, passing VX Racing’s Gavin Smith on the first lap and Arena Motorsport’s Tom Chilton on the second. He then claimed fifth place on lap three as he passed the SEAT of Luke Hines. Unfortunately the overtaking streak came to an end, and fifth place was where Rob remained through to the end of the race, despite swapping paint with both Matt Neal and Colin Turkington in front of him.

The build up to race two was predominantly influenced by the rain that had fallen beforehand and the resulting tyre choice that had to be made. While the track was wet for the opening couple of laps, the rain had stopped and a dry line soon started to develop.

Rob made a strong start on the slippery surface, sticking to the inside line and keeping his nose clean as there was early contact between Dan Eaves and Colin Turkington alongside him. Rob then passed Jason Plato as well to move up to fourth position. Yvan Muller led the race early on, but both he and Plato received stop-go penalties for infringements on the grid. Muller pitting promoted Rob to second behind Tom Chilton, but before long he was battling with Eaves and Turkington, whose cars were strong on the slippery track.

Much place changing followed as the track dried out, and Chilton’s wet-shod Civic quickly dropped off the pace. Rob settled into third position behind Turkington and Eaves and looked strong throughout the race. However there was little he could do to keep the fast-running Matt Neal behind him and it was another fourth-place finish when the chequered flag fell.

The third race of the day was live on ITV1 and television viewers could not have asked for a more action-packed race. There were bumps, bashes and plenty of overtaking – not least for Rob!

Starting sixth as a result of the top ten finishers being reversed to form the grid for the final race of the day, Rob guided his ballast-free MG ZS down the inside through the tight right-hander that forms the first corner at Mondello Park. Polesitter Jason Plato failed to make a good getaway, and Rob passed the SEAT early on, which clearly angered the former champion.

“I don’t really know what happened to Plato”, said Rob. “Obviously he was on pole, so he can’t have made a good start. But I got by him, and then the whole of the next lap, every bend, he was hitting me. And hitting me hard. Then we came down to the first corner, and he just took an absolutely crazy lunge and drove me in the door so hard.”

Later on the same lap, Rob received a heavy hit from Plato’s teammate James Pickford, which dropped him right down through the pack, to tenth position and left the MG ZS looking more than a little second hand.

“It was just absolute downright stupidity to do that”, Rob said of Pickford’s antics. “It’s just complete and utter non-respect.”

Undeterred, Rob remained focused and set out on a run that showed just how strongly he and the MG can perform. Gaining a couple of places as drivers fell of the track in front of him, Rob put in some quick laptimes as he ran alone in eight spot in the middle section of the race. He then closed up on the front-running pack and started to pick them off one by one.

First up was Gavin Smith at Turn 7a on lap eight. Plato and Neal removed themselves from Rob’s path by finding the gravel trap together, briefly bringing out the safety car. When racing was resumed, Rob clambered all over the back of Colin Turkington’s Astra Sport Hatch before edging past with a couple of laps remaining.

It looked like yet another fourth place for Rob, but his determination pulled him up to the back of Dan Eaves’ Team Halfords Honda and then came the move of the weekend. Rob braked much later than Eaves going into the Honda corner for the first time and amazingly drove right around the outside, keeping the car firmly on the track and claiming third position. There was no way Rob was going to let the place slip and he toured the track one final time to take the chequered flag.

“I’m over the moon with that result”, said Rob after the race. “I’m pleased that we’ve done it. I’m pleased that I’ve got some good results for the team today.”

“It was absolutely ludicrous out there. The car drove really well, and it’s a tribute to the team how strong it is.”

The third place finish came despite substantial damage to Rob’s MG ZS, which as an independent entry, hit him hard.

“I’ve got a certain amount of money in my budget for damage and that is supposed to be there if I have a crash. And we’ve nearly used that. We’ve had four doors today. We put two doors on in that last race, from being hit in the door and there’s another two doors needed now.”

Damage aside, Rob was rewarded with his second visit to the podium this year, and also picked up the Will Hoy Memorial Hard Charger trophy.

“It was nice to win that. I was reading something the other day, and I thought it would be great to get that. I had completely forgotten about that when I got on the podium, so that was a good way to finish the weekend.”

It was a frantic weekend with a fantastic finale for Rob bringing a podium finish to reward the team’s hard work throughout the weekend. There are now two weeks to recover before the championship heads to Snetterton in Norfolk fro rounds 18, 19 and 20 over the weekend of 6/7 August.