Rob Collard hailed a ‘great fighting spirit’ after the British Touring Car Championship stalwart recovered from a disastrous qualifying to score a podium among a hat-trick of points finishes at Rockingham, and in doing so moved closer to team-mate Sam Tordoff in the championship table.
Torrential rain, poor visibility and deteriorating track conditions were the least of WSR’s concerns on Saturday, with engine problems curtailing the charge of all three BMW 125i M-Sport machines, leaving Collard 28th.
A spirited comeback from the Hampshire-based driver in the first race saw him cross the line 14th, before storming through the field to finish third in the second contest, a whisker behind Andrew Jordan as the two finished the race almost alongside one another.
Collard then impressively maintained his performance with the added success ballast on board and finished 6th in race three despite being reversed backwards in the draw prior to the start.
Despite dropping from third to fifth in the championship by virtue of his weekends work, Collard is now 31 markers adrift of standings leader Tordoff, a smaller margin than before the triple header in Northamptonshire, a fact not lost on one of the wisest heads in the field.
“Although I’d like to have scored a few more points, I’ve closed the gap to Sam compared to where I was after Knockhill and that’s a positive,” admitted Collard.
“To fight back from a dreadful wet qualifying and get two top-10 finishes – including a podium – shows once again what a great fighting spirit we have here at WSR and how strong the BMW is in racing conditions.”
“The performance of the car today [Sunday] has been fantastic, with or without ballast and it’s been possible to overtake other cars pretty much anywhere on the circuit.”
With Collard enjoying what some have described as an ‘Indian summer’ to his extensive and decorated BTCC career, he heads to Silverstone in three weeks time [17th-18th September] with arguably his best chance yet to claim his maiden drivers crown.
His efforts over the weekend also helped to ensure both Team JCT600 with GardX and West Surrey Racing maintained their respective advantages at the top of the HiQ Teams Championship and the Manufacturers standings heading to the home of the British Grand Prix.
Team-mate Sam Tordoff’s advantage has been cut to just five points from three-time champion Matt Neal with six races remaining before the series concludes at Brands Hatch in October.