FRUSTRATION FOR TEAM VERTU DESPITE CROFT TRIPLE PODIUM
Team VERTU endured a weekend of frustration as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship headed for Croft for the eighth meeting of the year, despite picking up three podium finishes.
The EXCELR8-run squad headed for North Yorkshire hoping to replicate the race-winning performances seen in recent seasons, with Tom Ingram hoping to keep his slim hopes of defending the title he secured for a second time last year.
Free practice saw Ingram and Tom Chilton lap inside the top ten as the team prepared for qualifying, with Ricky Collard lapping within a second of the quickest time on his return to the circuit and Nicolas Hamilton going nearly half a second quicker than in the same session last season after the team introduced revisions to the braking system on his car.
Ingram would go second quickest in the first phase of qualifying to earn a place on row two for the qualifying race, with Collard, Chilton and Hamilton ending up ninth, 15th and 21st on the grid having run in session two.
Ingram looked set to take fourth in the qualifying race itself before a rare error on the penultimate lap saw him run wide at Sunny and drop to fifth, although Collard and Chilton gained two spots apiece to end up seventh and 13th. Hamilton meanwhile finished in 22nd as he continued to acclimatise to his new braking system.
The opening race of the weekend on Sunday morning would be impacted by poor weather after the arrival of rain, with drivers facing a decision over which tyres to go with.
Both Ingram and Collard headed to the grid on wet tyres, with Chilton and Hamilton going with the hard tyre – only to pit after the green flag lap to move onto wet rubber.
From fifth, Ingram gained a spot on lap one in tricky conditions before becoming embroiled in a race-long battle with Ash Sutton for third, eventually getting ahead on lap twelve when Sutton made a small error at Sunny.
Ingram then quickly overhauled Dan Cammish and Josh Cook to hit the front although a five second penalty for exceeding track limits meant he would be classified in third.
Collard also made up ground in the early stages to rise into fifth, which is where he would remain throughout, with Chilton overcoming his pre-race stop to rise through to twelfth by the finish. Hamilton’s race day kicked off with 22nd having also dropped off the back of the field following his stop.
Race two saw the full field on slick tyres despite the circuit being far from dry, with Ingram on the hard tyre but the other three drivers all on the soft.
Despite that, Ingram retained his position in the early stages of the race before battling ahead of Cook to take second – although he would then slip back to fourth after losing out to the soft-shod cars of Dan Rowbottom and Collard.
Ingram’s hopes of holding on for a top four finish were then ended when contact from Cammish at Sunny saw his car slide off across the wet grass into the tyres, with the #80 Hyundai ultimately forced in to retire.
Collard was therefore left to fly the flag for Team VERTU as he took third despite being handed a five second penalty for exceeding track limits, with Chilton recovering from a wide moment on the opening lap that dropped him places to come through to eighth place.
Hamilton took the flag in 19th having struggled to maximise the pace in his car in the conditions.
The reverse grid draw put Chilton on the second row of the grid, and he held station at the start before the safety car was deployed, sadly as a result of Collard’s race being ended early when contact from Cammish at turn one tipped him into a spin.
Ingram had gained eleven spots by avoiding the chaos ahead with Hamilton also rising into the points ahead of the restart, where Chilton wasted little time in clearing the Audi of Aiden Moffat to move into a second – a position he held to the finish.
There would be further disappointment for Ingram however when he was squeezed off track by Charles Rainford heading into the Esses when inside the top ten and was forced to retire for the second time in the weekend, with Hamilton producing his strongest run of the weekend by far to take the flag in twelfth spot.
However, he would be one of seven drivers hit with a time penalty for exceeding track limits, which dropped him down to 16th position and outside the points.
The team will now look to regroup ahead of the next event on the calendar at Silverstone later this month.
Tom Chilton, #3 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N, said:
“After a tough weekend at Donington Park, it’s great to end things here with a podium finish, and credit to Mikey Doble for the win in that final race as he was just a little bit quicker than me over the race distance.
“I’m still happy with second as it was a positive result to end things when you consider that we started the first race from the pits and the car felt really strong. That’s been shown by the fact that in every race, we’ve made up places and raced our way forwards – I just need to try and make sure that we get more from Saturday over the next two rounds.
“Okay so there is plenty that hasn’t gone our way this weekend, but we’ve got three trophies to take away from it and we’ll keep pushing hard to add to it.”
Ricky Collard, #11 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N, said:
“I have mixed emotions because of the way the weekend ended, as it’s so frustrating to have someone take you out at turn one when you know there is the possibility of a strong result. It’s a shame because in race two, the car felt electric and to score another podium and set the fastest lap was great.
“Credit to the team because they have given me a great car this season and I’ve had loads of fun and made some great memories. Considering we had no testing before the season and I’ve been pretty much going in blind to every weekend, we’ve picked up seven podiums, and I’ve scored more points than ever before.
“Hopefully we can return next year to see what we can do in a full campaign.”
Nicolas Hamilton, #28 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N, said:
“We made some changes to my car this weekend by removing the servo from the brakes as we look to test things for next year, so I really could have done with three dry races – instead we got three races with a bit of everything!
“We were still working on getting everything set up going into Sunday which meant race one was a challenge in the wet, and then the greasy circuit in race two meant it was difficult to really get consistent feedback on the change. However, race three when it was dry was a massive step forwards as I was much more consistent on the brakes, and was able to manage the tyre more than in previous events.
“I really drove my heart out to get up to P12 so I’m a bit gutted to then lose the points to a track limits penalty, because this series is so hard and it means a lot to me to finish in the points. However, the rules are the rules and if anything, it just fires me up a bit more for Silverstone next time out.”
Tom Ingram, #80 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N, said:
“If I’m being totally honest, this is a weekend where I really don’t know what to say at the end of it. Clearly, we had a quick car as we showed by winning the first race on the road but in race two and race three, we’ve just been on the wrong side of things that we had no control over, which ended up with us off the road and forced into retirement.
“As a team, we’ve obviously scored a podium in every race this weekend which is the positive for us to take away, but at the same time, we know that it could – and should – have been a lot more.”
Justina Williams, Team VERTU Team Owner, said:
“Obviously we’re pleased to come away from Croft with three podium finishes but we all share the frustration of the drivers that it hasn’t been more. We clearly had the pace to challenge for a victory this weekend and instead, we suffered multiple DNFs due to circumstances outside our control.
“We’ll regroup and look to come out fighting at Silverstone later in the month.”
