Rob scores first BTCC victory at Knockhill

Rounds 22, 23 & 24 of the 2005 British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill
August 27/28, 2005

Race three glory for Collard and West Surrey Racing

The sweet small of success emerged from the wet and wild conditions at Knockhill as Rob claimed his maiden BTCC victory. It took until the final race of the weekend, but as Rob and the West Surrey racing team left the Scottish circuit there was jubilation all round.

The signs were promising from the very first session on Saturday when Rob set the second fastest time - a feat that he repeated in the second free practice session. However, there was disappointment when it came to qualifying as a gearbox problem prevented Rob from continuing his earlier exploits.

After managing just 11th on the grid, Rob said, "It's disappointing after we went so well in free practice. The car just wasn't the same as it was earlier. It's been another frustrating session for us."

Races one and two on Sunday were relatively uneventful for Rob. Two ninth place finishes seemed scant consolation for the pace shown early on Saturday. But that innocuous looking ninth place finish in race two was to transform Rob's fortunes.

It signalled a front row start for round 24 courtesy of the reverse grid regulations. While the heavy rain that had been present since early morning persisted, Rob grabbed his opportunity with both hands, storming into the lead at the first corner. Polesitter Mark Proctor ran wide through Duffus Dip, which opened up space fro Jason Plato to move through to second behind Rob.

Rob opened up a two-second lead over the course of the first two laps, but that was quickly cancelled out when the safety car came out on track to allow Gavin Smith's stranded Astra Sport Hatch to be recovered after just two laps.

Four laps later and Rob controlled the restart. Behind him, Yvan Muller passed Plato to move up to second position. The VX Racing driver put Rob under pressure for several laps and once Matt Neal passed Muller for second, it was the championship leader who began to close on Rob, but a nine second lead was more than sufficient to ensure there was no chance of letting that first win slip. As Rob exited the hairpin for the final time, the WSR team headed to the pitwall to greet their victorious driver.

Dick Bennetts, team principal of West Surrey Racing, said, "I'm very, very pleased for Rob and everyone on the team."

After taking to the first step of the podium, an ecstatic Rob said, "It feels awesome, I must admit. For the first time in a long time I had butterflies in my stomach before that race. I wasn't really confident we that we had the pace in the wet, if I'm honest, but the car got off the line well. Once we got past Proctor, I pulled out a gap. Yvan put me under a bit of pressure for a few laps, but I could see where he was strong and where I was strong, and I controlled the race really. It was very pleasing."

"Once I got an eight second lead, I just cruised home. It means a lot in a lot of ways. I can silence a few of my critics. People can see that I've got good race pace now. We're getting good qualifying pace as well. Yesterday we should have been a lot higher up and it just seemed to be one saga after another, but there's no more excuses now, I've done it."

"The team have put a lot of faith in me this year and we've had a lot of silly little problems, which hurts team morale, so a good win is really going to pick everyone up. It's nice to have a good result because we were all a little bit down after the first two."

The penultimate meetings of the 2005 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship takes place at Silverstone over the weekend of 17/18 September.