CROFT - ROUND 5 - RACE REPORT

Rounds 13, 14 & 15 of the 2006 British Touring Car Championship at Croft
July 16/17, 2006

Croft challenging for Collard

Encouraging weekends at Oulton Park and Croft had put Rob's season firmly back on track after the disappointment of the early rounds. So heading to Croft in North Yorkshire, Rob was hoping for some further strong performances in the Team RAC MG ZS.

It was to prove a trying weekend for Rob and the team. It started well, with Rob setting the fourth fastest time in the opening free practice session, but qualifying was more difficult, with the top ten drivers separated by just six tenths of a second. Rob ended the session with ninth spot on the grid for Sunday's first race.

Following qualifying, Rob said, "We ran well in free practice. We were fourth in one and sixth in the other. We knew we weren't going to be as quick as the Hondas or the SEATs, so we were hoping for fifth or sixth in qualifying, so it's a bit disappointing to end up ninth. We'll try and get a good top six finish in race one and then go for the podium in race two."

Slightly further back on the grid for race one than he had hoped, but for Rob and Team RAC, there was still plenty to race for!

When the red lights went out to signal the start of the weekend's first race, Rob made a good start and quickly gained a handful of places, running sixth after just a couple of laps. Sixth became fifth when Gordon Shedden was forced to pit in his Team Halfords Integra. Around the halfway point in the race, Rob started to come under pressure from reigning champion Matt Neal in the second Integra.

The pair fought hard for a couple of laps, with some hard racing on some of the Croft circuit's fastest sections. At one point, contact between the two sent Rob's MG sideways and only a sensational catch allowed him to get back on track. Ultimately Neal's Integra had the pace and Rob was forced to settle for sixth. Although this became fifth later in the race when Rob passed Fabrizio Giovanardi in the works Vauxhall.

Rob's battle with Giovanardi resumed in race two, but unfortunately it was shortlived as the pair clashed out at the Sunny In corner. Rob said, "I hit Fabrizio. I hold my hands up, I made a mistake, and I'm sorry for that." The impact was enough to put Rob out of the race.

Race three was made harder by having to start from the back of the grid after the race two retirement, as well as by a car that was not fully repaired as a result of the short gap between the two races. Rob drove a controlled race to make it into the points by the time the chequered flag fell, but it was a tough way to end a tough weekend.

Speaking to collardracing.co.uk the day after the Croft races, Rob said, "I came away from Croft feeling absolutely deflated. I'd started building my points haul back up at Thruxton and Oulton Park, but Croft was very hard."

"Race one was good. We had good race pace after a relatively poor qualifying session. It was a very hard and physical race and I feel Matt was a bit hard on me. He could have caused a serious accident for both of us. More than once we had some very hairy moments when I was clearly in front of him. He just used the bumper of his car to bulldoze his way through. He carried it on in race three and he got penalised for it with Plato."

"Over the weekend, the RAC MG was very good. We struggled in qualifying, but generally the car had very good pace. It went very well in races one and two. I had a problem with the steering in race three. The car wasn't 100% repaired because we ran out of time, so I was driving the car with a problem on the front suspension. We went out anyway, to try and score some points and salvage something from the weekend."

"I'm very frustrated at the moment, because I don't feel I'm doing the car justice. We've got very good race pace, but I'm not qualifying very well. If you don't qualify well, you end up in the middle of the pack and you're having make risky overtaking manoeuvres that you possibly wouldn't have to make if you were on the first couple of rows."

"I really need to get focused at Donington Park and come back strong. I need to get back on the podium and start rebuilding my championship."

Rounds 16, 17 & 18 of the championship take place at Donington Park over the weekend of 29/30 July.