In his latest Crash.net column, Team RAC driver Tom Onslow-Cole looks back at the second round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season at Rockingham and his first trip to the BTCC podium.
I headed to Rockingham not overly confident as I didn’t really know the circuit, but during the practice sessions on Saturday I soon started to pick it up and made some positive changes to the car, so everything was going well as I went into qualifying.
The new car feels a lot different to the loan car I tested on media day. That was quite a while ago now and I have got comfortable in the car since then. Every time I get out of the
BMW I feel I’ve got more out of it and more comfortable and confident. On media day I did struggle a little bit as I was still learning the car and to be honest, I was also learning the circuit, but now it’s all starting to come together.
I went into qualifying looking to be well up the order and eighth (seventh when team-mate
Colin Turkington was excluded) definitely wasn’t where I wanted to be. However the times were still good and another tenth of a second and we could have been top four – but that is how it goes.
However I was still quietly confident going into race day as I knew we could make a few places off the start and then would come into our own a bit as the races progress.
To be honest, race day was a bit of a rough one. However there was the extreme high of the podium in the second race and that is what I have to leave Rockingham focusing on. We were unlucky in the final race with debris intervention, but these things happen in motorsport and it hasn’t got me down at all. I’m still leaving Rockingham happy and am confident going to
Thruxton that I can run near the front.
