Tom Chilton says he ‘needs some luck’ after an ‘up and down’ weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton, with the Motorbase driver securing just one top ten finish.
An engine failure on Saturday put the 33-year-old on the back foot heading into the first of two qualifying sessions, and he was only able to manage one flying lap to put him 16th on the grid for race one with 39 kg of ballast on board.
Second qualifying saw a resurgent ballast-free Chilton claim third, giving him a second row start for the 60th Anniversary ‘diamond double’ race.
Limited progress in race one saw Chilton climb to 13th, before he made limited further progress in race two to claim 11th.
In the showpiece race of the weekend, with double points on offer, Chilton slipped back at the start and went on to claim fifth, although he was happy to take home more points than he would have done for winning either of the day’s first two races.
“Overall the weekend was up and down for us,” said Chilton. “A few things went wrong which was a bit of bad luck, and some of our own making too.
“The ‘Diamond Double’ was the biggest race of the year and I was in the sniff of podium but I just didn’t get the start right in the last race and it dropped us back. It’s the first race that I’ve gone backwards in all year, so I’m feeling frustrated.”
Commenting on his pace, Chilton believes that his results don’t reflect where he is with his Ford Focus RS, as he slipped from fifth to eighth in the drivers’ championship standings following the weekend.
“Q2 was a complete turnaround from where we were in FP2! We scored more points in the last race than if we’d won the race before, so it was a good result.
“We’ve had the pace again this weekend but not got the points out of it. It seems to be the story for us all this year.
“Motorbase are giving us a fantastic car, we’re just due some luck.”