West surrey Racing head to Snetterton to kick start the second half of the season looking to improve their fortunes. The team’s lead driver Rob Collard admits he has had more than his fair share of bad luck so far this season, which sees him currently only 8th in the championship with just two podium finishes to his name.
“My confidence is still high, I’ve often been the fastest out there but also the most unfortunate. The turbocharged cars have an edge over a single flying lap in qualifying, particularly at a place like Snetterton – as ever that will give them track position for the races.”
Collard has never won a race in the BTCC at Snetterton before and has set his sights on scoring strongly on Sunday. With the LPG powered Focus’ expected to be at the top, Collard is hoping for some seasonal sunshine weather for race day.
“If I can get inside the top six again I’ll be absolutely delighted,” added Collard. “Then if we get a scorcher like we normally do at Snetterton the BMW can certainly come back at them in race trim.”
Andy Neate will be hoping to add to his current tally of 4 points at Snetterton and is eager to race again after a 6-week break. Neate took part in the recent test session that saw him set the 11th fastest time after only completing the morning session. By comparison, Collard was 9th fastest with a time 0.6 seconds better after managing to run in the afternoon session.
“It will definitely be good to get back racing after the summer break,” said Neate. “We have a good chance to get a strong qualifying position and I hope that the weather will be hot as this will give us a more of a chance against the turbo-charged cars. We had a good test there a couple of weeks back so there is no reason why we shouldn’t come away with some positive results and more points on the board.”
Dick Bennetts reiterated the feelings of Collard, whilst also having a subtle dig at the LPG powered Team Aon cars by stating that he hopes his team can win amongst the petrol powered cars.
“Most teams have some bad luck and we are certainly hoping that we had all of ours in the first half of the season,” said Bennetts. “We know that the turbo charged Fords will be strong at Snetterton but we will be looking to give them a run for their money and win the ‘naturally aspirated race’. We had a good test there a couple of weeks ago and worked on both dry and wet set-up so we are fully prepared and eager to get back on the BTCC grid, preferably towards the front.”