In his latest Crash.net column, Team RAC driver Tom Onslow-Cole looks back at the third round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season at Thruxton and a hat-trick of points finishes from a tough weekend.
To be honest with you, the results at Thruxton weren’t exactly what I was hoping for. It’s my favourite circuit and after the second place finish at Rockingham, I was obviously hunting down my first BTCC win. However to come away with points in all three races is great as it keeps the championship going, which is what you need over the course of the season.
Although I didn’t get the win I wanted, it was a good weekend for us in terms of the car. We made a lot of development progress with the BMW and the new control tyre that we have for Thruxton, a tyre that we’d not run on a rear-wheel drive car before. It was a struggle and a little bit uphill, but we did well to come away with some good knowledge. The races were hard and we used them as a bit of a test to try different set-ups and attempt to hone the car into the window.
The three races were all tough. In the first race we had really bad understeer in the car which we didn’t have the day before, in fact we’d had oversteer. We managed to dial that out in race two but went a bit too far as the car seems to be very responsive to change and we were hopping either side of the window.
In the final race I think we were a lot better and it was much more positive as we brought the set-up back and got the car in the right window. It was just a shame that as the race was coming to me, I had a moment at the chicane – due to a lack of talent elsewhere – that set me back. However, to fight back and take tenth place and the final point, is really good. To score in all three races is what you have to do to be high up in the championship so I am happy with how it turned out and I’m now looking forward to
Croft.
Another plus from the weekend is that the guys at Team RAC worked really well again at
Thruxton. They have been fantastic so far and everything that we have had to battle against, we have overcome.
The car was a bit of an unknown for us going into the weekend and we did a lot of research work back at the workshop to try and theorise a set-up which we initially tried. We weren’t too far away with that set-up and were then honing it in over the rest of the weekend, trying different things to get the tyres working for us. It’s just a shame that we didn’t have more testing, especially with the Thruxton tyres, but we have learned a lot and hopefully we can come back fighting when we return at the end of the season
I have a month’s break now before the next round and I’m still confident as I look forward to Croft. We will be back on the normal tyres which we know a lot better and if we nail the set-up right, which I think we can do, both Colin and myself will be up fighting for the podium.
As for whether Croft will suit the
BMW, who knows? Everyone said
Brands Hatch would be the worst circuit for the car and that Rockingham and Thruxton would be great but it hasn’t worked that way so far. To predict the car is hard at the moment but I know myself that the BMW is very quick in the slow corners and good at getting the traction down. At Croft there is the tight hairpin at the end of the lap where the car should be good so generally I am confident that the car will run well there.
Until next time,
Tom
www.tomonslowcole.com
www.teamrac.co.uk
