Ant Whorton-Eales described his comeback weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton as ‘really good’ after the AmD MG driver secured tenth in the second encounter.
Whorton-Eales was a late replacement for Tom Boardman in the team, having sat out the start of the BTCC season.
The 24-year-old had no track time in the car ahead of the weekend, and as such was only 30th in the first of Saturday’s qualifying sessions, facing a steep learning curve and 45 kg of new entry ballast. He was only marginally better in second qualifying with the 29th best time.
A steady first race saw Whorton-Eales make progress to 23rd in the rain, but with a better starting position for race two he managed to climb not only into the points but up to tenth, to take home six points.
The ‘diamond double’ final race was not quite as fortunate, and Whorton-Eales finished just outside the points in 16th. Nevertheless, he was pleased with his return to the championship.
“It’s been a really good weekend and I’m really pleased to come away from Snetterton with a points finish.” Said Whorton-Eales. “The start of the weekend was a bit of a struggle because of the weight we had to carry and the lack of time in the car, but we kept making improvements and then the conditions worked in our favour on race day.
“We had a decent car in the wet in race one but couldn’t get the result because of contact, and in the changing conditions in race two it was great to fight our way through to tenth – it’s just a shame there was no reverse grid this time!
“In race three I tried to take it easy on the tyres early on so that I could push in the later stages but the performance dropped away and it became quite frustrating because of the way that affected the handling.
“It’s a shame to miss out on the points but it was a good weekend as a whole and thanks to Shaun [Hollamby, Team Principal] and the team for trusting me to come in and do a job.”