Tom Chilton was delighted to end a dry spell of wins in the British Touring Car Championship with victory in the reversed-grid race at Croft, ending a run of 45 races without a victory.
Chilton, 39, had earlier scored a brace of top ten results in the races in North Yorkshire, despite a controversial incident in race two which saw him and title contender Jake Hill come together.
Having snatched eighth from Colin Turkington towards the end of the second race, Chilton found himself drawn to start from pole for the final sprint of the day.
Making a strong start, Chilton controlled the race and scored an emphatic lights-to-flag win by a second and a half over NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish, with the win being the 16th of his BTCC career and his first in the dry since winning at Croft back in 2019.
Underscoring the EXCELR8 Motorsport driver’s pace was the fact that his lap in the first part of qualifying on Saturday proved to be the fastest lap of anyone all weekend.
“The team has done a great job and the car was so quick on Saturday where we set the fastest BTCC lap around Croft in Q1,” said Chilton.
“We didn’t get the best from the tyres in Q2 which was a real shame, and then in races one and two we had a few little issues with the car that again meant we couldn’t maximise the potential in the Hyundai.
“Having finally benefitted from the reverse grid, I was so pleased that we managed to fix the gremlins because wow – the car was mega.
“I got the start of my life when the lights went out and from that point on, I was able to control things from the front.
“The only time Cammish was able to close in was when he was on the hybrid, but I was able to use it to then pull away again and manage the gap.
“No-one had an answer for us and it’s great for me personally because I’ve had a bit of a dry spell and you wonder sometimes if it’s a case of the older you are, the faster you were.
“We really deserved the victory and having scored three podiums and taken the Teams’ Trophy, it’s been a great way for us to kick off the second half of the year.”
The result sees Chilton consolidate his top ten position in the drivers’ standings, moving up to seventh with 130 points.