Ollie Taylor did not want to blame Jessica Bäckman for his race-ending clash in the second TCR UK Series race at Knockhill, with the Pyro Motorsport driver accepting some responsibility for the incident.
Taylor’s Honda and Bäckman’s Volkswagen came together on the 22nd lap of the race, resulting in Taylor being forced out on the spot and a seven-lap safety car period to retrieve his stricken Civic.
The incident dented Taylor’s title charge, with the 29-year-old dropping to third in the championship standings as a result, seven points behind Andreas Bäckman.
“I had a brake duct issue, so I wasn’t getting efficient cooling on the brakes,” said Taylor to TouringCars.Net. “I couldn’t get the car stopped at Turn 1.
“I lost a bit of ground at the start, and in the first four or five laps I was still overshooting the corner and losing places back to [Derek] Palmer and [Darelle] Wilson, and found myself having to get back past them again, and I just let Dan [Lloyd] slip away.
“So after that I just tried to get my head down, focus on what I needed to do, and get back to the front. That was my hunting ground down there at Turn 1, making some good passes on people.
“I came together with Jessica, and I wasn’t even trying to make the pass really. I was just trying to show up the inside and I just couldn’t get the thing stopped.
“I guess maybe she though it was her corner, and maybe it was. I found myself being on the inside, not being able to stop. She turned in, we came together, and it was obviously quite a large impact and damaged the car and ended my race. It was definitely not what I needed to happen.
“I’m not necessarily going to apportion blame on Jess. My race ended there and then on that corner and hers didn’t. I think there were two parties involved and I think we share a certain amount of responsibility.”
Jessica Bäckman believes that Taylor wouldn’t have made it around the corner if she hadn’t been there to stop him going off into the gravel.
“For me, he went way too far, and if I wasn’t there then he would have been going straight so I was like his support,” she told TouringCars.Net. “For me that was way too late a move to make it possible to get around the corner.
“I went to the stewards and they said it was way too late for him to go too.”