Rob Collard secured a superb second place finish for Airwaves BMW in the HiQ MSA Touring Car Championship at Silverstone.
The Hampshire-based driver enjoyed a thrilling race-long duel with Mat Jackson in the third round of the day at the Northamptonshire circuit, eventually finishing just two tenths of a second behind the Chevrolet which dominated the race meeting.
Collard’s third podium of the season saw him complete the race as the highest-placed BMW driver, while team-mate Jonny Adam took a good sixth-place finish.
It was a timely return to form for the Kent-based squad, which was glad to see its BMW 320sis collects top-ten points finishes in all three races after a couple of tough race weekends recently.
In race one Rob Collard made a great start from second on the grid to take the lead from Mat Jackson heading into the first corner at Copse. Team-mate Jonny Adam also got away well, managing to outgun rival BMW drivers Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley to go into fifth place on the first lap. However, The Airwaves BMW drivers were unable to combat the dominant Chevrolets of Jackson, Plato and Nash - who enjoyed a huge performance advantage over the rest of the field around Silverstone’s National Circuit. However, Collard was forced to relinquish his lead to Jackson on lap four, just before the safety car appeared after an incident involving Tom Onslow-Cole and Anthony Reid. That erased Collard’s gap over the Chevy’s behind him and he had to defend strongly from Plato and Nash when the race resumed on lap 10. At this point Jonny Adam was enjoying a joust with championship leader Colin Turkington as the two BMW drivers locked horns over fifth position.
Despite his best efforts Collard was powerless to prevent Plato and Nash eventually making their performance advantage count and passing him on lap 15. Shortly after Colin Turkington also managed to slip past the Hampshireman, leaving him placed in fifth with team-mate Jonny Adam just behind in sixth. The race was then disrupted again as the safety car reappeared due to an oil spillage on the track, and the Airwaves BMW duo – whose tyres had lost their optimum performance temperature - fell into the clutches of reigning BTCC champion Fabrizio Giovanardi. Collard and Adam went on to finish sixth and eighth and collect solid points finishes after a frustratingly stop-start race.
The weather was on the turn for race two, and despite being fairly dry at the start it caught out many drivers in the field as it got progressively wetter and they struggled for grip on slick tyres. Airwaves BMW’s Rob Collard made two places away from the start line and jumped from sixth to fourth, while team-mate Jonny emulated him by going from eighth to sixth by the first corner. Three laps in and Collard was in the thick of the action as he pushed to try and get past the rival BMW of Colin Turkington in third. However, reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi was on his case and as they tangled Collard was forced to save a massive slide and lost places, dropping to down ninth.
As the track became increasingly wet the order of the field changed lap after lap as drivers battled with the slippery conditions. Halfway through on lap 11 Airwaves BMW’s Jonny Adam fell back from seventh to ninth after a slight wobble, allowing team-mate Rob Collard to climb up to seventh. On lap 17 Collard just managed to avoid collecting the rival BMW of Stephen Jelley as the Team RAC driver spun across the track, however he lost ground due to the incident and once again dropped behind team-mate Jonny Adam and had to slot into 10th place. From then on it was a case of guiding the unsettled BMWs home in the tricky conditions and Adam and Collard eventually finished seventh and ninth respectively.
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