BTC Racing’s Tom Chilton said he was “very grateful” to maintain his podium position despite suffering an issue with his front-left tyre in the closing stages of the final British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton.
Chilton, who enjoyed a consistent day of results at the high-speed Hampshire circuit, converted his front row starting position into a podium by following team-mate Josh Cook home in a memorable 1-2 for BTC Racing.
He said he believed he initially had stronger pace than Cook, but opted to drop back to save his tyres for the end of the race on the highly-abrasive track surface, before a mistake then led to a front-left tyre issue.
“At the beginning I felt like I had the legs on him, but I know it’s very hard to overtake around here, so I purposely backed off actually,” said Chilton.
“I was trying to hold my own and look after the tyres, and I know it’s all about the end when the tyres go off so I was trying to hold it back.
“But actually I think I made a bit of a mistake, somebody pushed the tyres back on the apex [of the chicane] and I thought I could cut a little bit more.
“I ended up causing a huge vibration on my front-left to the point where I think it was either almost punctured or having a bit of a moment with the canvas, it literally ruined the tyre.
“I spoke to Rory who just finished behind me and he said he had the exact same thing! So we’re obviously pushing every single millimetre on this circuit and that’s what it takes to get on the podium. The first half of the race was easy and then I was just hanging on and I’m just very grateful I got here.”
After securing his first podium of the 2020 campaign last time out in race three at Thruxton, Chilton was grateful to notch up podium number two with BTC Racing as he feels the tide is now changing in terms of luck and results for the second half of the season.
“It’ll mean so much [to the team], we haven’t had the best of starts,” he said.
“The first couple of rounds didn’t go in our favour and I just had a tiny little fuse go on the powersteering at Brands Hatch when I was on for a podium there, and nothing has really gone our way.
“But since Oulton Park I’ve slowly been building up and building up and it’s now two weekends in a row where I’ve had a podium at each one.
“It’s great, it’s the highest finish in this car with this team so far and it’s the highest finish I’ve ever had at Thruxton so a massive positive!”