British Touring Car Championship 2008

HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship - Round Eight
Knockhill, August 17, 2008

Cool Collard Sails to Sixth

Motorbase Performance BMW's Rob Collard enjoyed one of his best races in 2008 as he collected sixth place in race two of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill.

The Hampshire-based driver produced a measured performance to improve on his seventh place finish in the first race by one position.

Collard has endured more than his fair share of bad luck this season, but has found the Scottish air to his liking this weekend and scored two top-ten finishes.

Starting from seventh Collard tracked Matt Jackson, Colin Turkington and Andy Jordan ahead of him closely, and by lap seven was well-positioned to try and improve his position. However, Darren Turner was on an incredible charge through the field behind him and pushed him down to eighth on lap 14.

With no major incidents the field began to stretch out after the half-way point, but Collard became stronger as the race wore on and closed in on the runners ahead of him rapidly. As Darren Turner and Colin Turkington jousted for position Collard made the most of the opportunity when Turner ran wide on the penultimate lap, and he took both cars to jump into sixth place.

Collard's team-mate Steven Kane, starting in 12th, had a more difficult race. He once again produced a blistering start and snatched two or three places form the start line. However, the Northern Irishman struggled with the set up of his car throughout the race and could not replicate his good form from the past few events.

With Collard starting from row two of the grid in fourth position for the final race he will be confident of making it three scoring finish finishes in a row.

Steven Kane will try to turn his weekend around by forcing his way back into top ten and bringing home more points for Motorbase Performance BMW.

Motorbase Performance Team Driver Steven Kane said:
"That was a really tough race for me. I made another good start but then had a slight off and lost what I had gained. I had changed my set up slightly from the first race and it just wasn't right, I had a real struggle with the car under braking and I had to fight it through every corner. We'll need to turn it around for the final race."

Motorbase Performance Team Driver Rob Collard said:
"I'm really happy with that performance. It was a terrific result for me, the Motorbase team and our sponsors Komatsu. I love driving at Knockhill and fondly remember my win here in 2005, and I think we can go for a podium place in race three. The car is really strong in the second half of the race and the team have done a great job with it today. I just hope we can do the business in the final and cap a great weekend with another good result."

Motorbase Performance Race Two Results

Rob Collard Position 6 5pts Total Time – 21.50.799 Fastest Lap – 53.838

Steven Kane Position 14 N/A Total Time – 21.58.283 Fastest Lap – 53.838

Other news reports: