Ricky Collard says his début in the British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham was ‘a huge learning experience’ after the Team BMW stand-in missed out on the points in his first BTCC weekend.
Collard was standing in for his father Rob, who was forced to miss the event and the next one in Scotland as a precaution following concussion in 2017.
With Ricky being a late change to the grid, he had to carry 45 kg of late-entry ballast into qualifying and race one on Sunday.
That meant the 22-year-old could only manage 26th fastest in qualifying, which set him up for a 17th place finish in race one.
Race two saw Collard on the receiving end of some robust driving and he could only finish in 20th, before a race three technical hitch prevented him from taking the start.
“The whole weekend’s been a huge learning experience,” said Collard. “While the results weren’t what we’d hoped for, the potential is clearly there, as we proved by setting the fifth-fastest lap in race one.
“The racecraft in this series is different to anything I’ve experienced in my racing career and it’s going to take a bit of time to get used to.
“I’ll take everything I’ve learned here and put it into practice at Knockhill in two weeks’ time.”
WSR team Principal Dick Bennetts praised Collard’s performances over the weekend, considering his lack of experience, ballast and physical competition around him.
“Ricky had some very good speed in race one but got beaten up by some of the rough diving in race two,” said Bennetts. “He was thrown in at the deep end, but he’s done a good job.”