Frank Wrathall and the Dynojet team took the Toyota brand back to the top step of the British Touring car Championship podium with his and the teams’ maiden victory at Brands Hatch.
The 26 Year Old lined up second on the grid for the final race of the season and inherited the lead on lap four and never looked back as he secured his maiden victory by almost seven seconds.
The basis for his maiden win came in the second race of the day as he recovered from 21st on the grid to sixth at the line, having been taken out of the opening race by an on track rival.
Wrathall admitted that he knew he had a potential winning car under him as soon as the race started and he headed to Paddock Hill Bend.
“I got too much wheelspin off the start and moved sideways instead of forward. That allowed Jason Plato to pass me on the inside, so I just stuck to the outside line through Paddock and the car felt great and I went straight back past him. It was at that point that I thought ‘we could be all right here,’” explains Wrathall, who secured tenth in the drivers’ Championship.
“Getting my first win is such a relief, and it’s great for the Dynojet team, to whom I owe everything. They deserve all the praise: they have done an incredible job and all day they have been improving the Toyota to the point where it was the best car out there. Everyone has worked so hard and we’ve had far too many disappointments this year, so this is a great end to the season.”
Wrathall believes that he would have had the pace to pass the early race leader, Mat Jackson, on track if the Redstone Racing driver hadn’t have had his throttle problems.
“I was quite a lot quicker than him in several places. The Toyota felt like it was on rails, absolutely mega. The track was really slippery in several places and I was just concentrating on not making any mistakes, driving within myself. When Mat slowed down and I passed him for the lead all I could think was how much of the race was left, and here I was leading a touring car race for the first time.
“I was also thinking about everybody in the team. I knew what I was doing and I was pretty comfortable with things, but I reckoned that everyone in the pit garage must have been beside themselves.”
The maiden win for the team is reward for all of the hard work put in by Frank Wrathall Snr and he paid tribute to Frank Jnr and everyone connected with the Dynojet team.
“He didn’t do too bad, did he? I spent the race just counting it down; obviously it was at the back of my mind that the Hondas might come back at us. But we knew that we had the pace to run with them in the wet. The boys have done sterling work and our chief engineer, Charles Hodge, has chipped away at the settings all day and has done a great job.”