The weekend that could have been!

Rounds 19, 20 & 21 of the 2005 British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton
August 6/7, 2005

Front row qualifying spot brings little reward

Two weeks after a bruising trip to Mondello Park in Ireland that left the MG ZS rather battered, Rob and the West Surrey Racing team headed to Snetterton in Norfolk for rounds 19, 20 & 21 of the 2005 British Touring Car Championship.

Rob's weekend began promisingly when he shot to the top of the times in the second free practice session, lapping in 1:12.145. An improvement of over three tenths of a second on his first session time, this was the quickest time recorded by any driver in the morning sessions.

Following the session, a grinning Rob said, "I'm very pleased with that. It's the first time we've been on top this year, so hopefully it's a good sign for qualifying. But I think the pace will be quick so we'll have to see."

It certainly was quick, but only one driver was quicker than Rob himself. Tom Chilton was the sole driver to break the one-minute twelve second barrier and claimed pole position. Rob's best lap was a 1:12.019 which was enough to secure him a front row grid spot for round 19.

When it came to the start of the race, Rob's usual demon getaway deserted him, thanks to a faulty clutch in the MG ZS. The result was that Rob wad down in sixth by the first corner and the race suddenly got a whole lot harder. Rob came under early pressure from SEAT's Jason Plato, but before long, the Toledo driver retired from the race with a blown engine. For almost the entire duration of the 16 lap race, Rob looked for a way past the Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch of Colin Turkington, whom he finally got the better of on the last lap to finish fifth.

Rob said, "The clutch just slipped. We had this yesterday. I commented to the team that I thought the clutch was slipping, but they were quite confident by the data that it wasn't. I pulled up on the grid, and then the clutch slipped."

Compared to recent races, round 20 was a relatively tame affair. With the clutch fixed, Rob made a quick start, holding fifth position into the first corner. He set about chasing championship leader Matt Neal in fourth, and was ready to capitalize as Neal overtook Yvan Muller on the penultimate lap, but there was no gap for the WSR MG and Rob crossed the line as he started, in fifth.

For the final race of the day, Rob's weekend went from bad to worse, with a brake problem emerging just before the race.

A disappointed Rob explained, "I went up to the end of the pitlane and they bled [the brakes] there, but it made it worse. So when I drove out, I was trying to get around as quickly as I could to try and get on the grid to give them time to bleed. We bled them on the grid, but we ran out of time and it was just terrible. So I came straight into the pits and we bled them again. It was fine after that, but we were a lap down."

And so the race was effectively over. Despite lapping quickly for the rest of the race, there was no chance for Rob to make up the lost time and a 12th place finish was scant reward for the Hampshire racer.

"You'd never think that after being second in qualifying that you wouldn't be higher than fifth", said Rob after the day's third race.

But taking the positives from the weekend, he continued, "I'm pretty confident we can take the pace on to Knockhill. We showed a lot of promise yesterday and then again in the two races today, but certain things are out of my control as a driver."

"It's just signs of a very tight budget at the moment, I think. We didn't do a shakedown test. That's why we had a problem in free practice one yesterday, with a misfire. The car's going to be good at Knockhill. No hesitation, I think we can run in the top three or four at Knockhill. That's the sort of track that suits me. I don't think it will suit the Hondas that well. And we need some luck. I think the SEAT's will be strong there, and the Vauxhall, and us."

Rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the championship take place at Knockhill in Scotland over the weekend of 27/28 August.