Tom Chilton was ‘super happy’ to claim his first win of the British Touring Car Championship season in the opening meeting at Donington Park, after he came out on top in the reverse-grid race.
Team Vertu’s Chilton had been on the pace all weekend, inside the top four in both practice sessions, and making it through to Q3 in qualifying before a crank sensor failure in the final part left him unable to post a meaningful time.
In the opening race, Chilton found himself in the thick of the battles, initially finishing in fifth before being penalised by five seconds for contact with Josh Cook at the chicane, dropping the 40-year-old to seventh.
The Hyundai driver made up one place in the second race to sixth, which crucially gave him the reverse-grid pole for the final race, in which Chilton would also get to run the softer compound tyre.
Chilton then romped to a 17th career victory in the final race, opening up a comfortable margin over team-mate Tom Ingram, before backing off to reduce the risk of a puncture.
Leaving Donington third in the drivers’ standings, 16 points behind leader Ash Sutton, Chilton was delighted with his weekend performances.
“I’m feeling very happy,” said Chilton to TouringCars.Net. “No. 3 is my lucky number and I’m third in the championship going into my favourite round next which is Brands Hatch, my local track. I’m so happy for the team, as we are second and third in the standings.
“On a personal note, to get the first win [of the year] for the team is a big deal. I’m super, super happy. I remember I got the first win for the team a couple of years back [in 2023], in greasy conditions around the pitstops, but this time I feel like we actually have worked on the car well.
“I feel like the old Tom Chilton is back because I struggled the last few years with the hybrid, and the weight in the car. I’ve always been the heaviest driver on the grid, everyone knows that, but I have lost two stone before the start of this year and my car has lost 60 kg, so I’ve lost ~60 kg out of the car.
“All of a sudden I’ve gone from being seventh to tenth to fighting at the front – I got the fastest lap in traces two and three.
“I’ve definitely got the race pace. I’ve always thought we had a good race car, but qualifying wasn’t quite as good because of my setup, which is different from the other three. It hindered me in qualifying but it’s better in the race, but you get points in the race.
“At the moment, I’m quietly confident for the rest of the year.”
Chilton was unfazed by the penalty he got in the opening race, which he thought was fair due to the outcome of the contact with Josh Cook’s Honda.
“If I hadn’t had the crank sensor fail in Q3 I would have qualified higher, 100%, and I would have had a different weekend altogether.
“I really did go backwards through being stuck in traffic and things not going right, and then a penalty due to me and Josh.
“Josh did turn across me, and the officials agree he did turn across me; they said because I gained an unfair advantage, I had to be given a time penalty and get put behind Josh, and I said ‘yeah, that makes sense’.
“I went back two places but actually it ended up working quite well as I then got sixth in race two and got the reverse grid.
“The pole position and having the soft tyre was everything. Me and Tom [Ingram] were squeaky bum-running a few times with the soft trying to make it last to the end, but we made it work and we learnt what to do with it.
“This was my worst circuit; I’m a lot quicker at Brands! I’m very confident heading to Brands.”