Tom Chilton was ecstatic to secure third on the grid for the final British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton, after a ‘mega lap’ salvaged a day in which the Motorbase driver suffered from an engine failure.
Having only managed a handful of laps in first qualifying to put him in 16th for race one, Chilton found form in second qualifying and went nine tenths of a second faster to claim third for the double distance race.
The Brit had earlier in the day suffered misfortune when his engine failed in second practice, with a broken cam belt, leaving him with reduced track time and the team with a race against time to prepare the car.
The comeback to third in the second qualifying session left Chilton extremely happy with his efforts, even though he was almost half a second slower than pole-sitter Jack Goff.
“It was mega, I had done no laps all day, and as much as we did 1,000 km [in testing] I actually tried a different setup on my car this weekend,” said Chilton to TouringCars.Net. “On the first lap I did in Q1 it was great.
“After everything we did to develop the car over two weeks ago, the circuit has changed – it’s over a second a lap faster. I never got a chance in FP2 to refine the car setup, so we had to refine it after a quick dash for the first time in Q1 in those ten minutes.
“We then had the joys of taking those 39 kg out [for second qualifying] and we got P3 baby! I got a little bit of a tow off [Dan] Cammish, so I owe him a beer, but it was absolutely sweet.”
Chilton admits that he would be happy to accept third in the double distance, double points final race of the weekend, although he believes his best chance of making progress is at the very start of the race.
“It’s about points – if you finish third you’re getting serious points – I’d get 30 points which is ten more than winning the race before. I’d be quite happy with third.
“I always give it everything at the start, as at Croft I went from fourth to second, and I want to try and do another great start here uphill.
“I think a lot of it is in the start and then the second half of the race, depending on how people use their tyres.”