Tom Onslow-Cole admitted he was delighted after securing his maiden victory in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at
Snetterton.
The Team RAC rookie, who had already taken to the podium on a number of occasions during the season to date, was one of the stars of the weekend in Norfolk on home soil for title sponsors RAC, whose base is down the road from the Snetterton circuit in Norwich.
A strong performance in qualifying saw the 20-year-old qualify in second place on the grid behind team-mate
Colin Turkington and – having crossed the line in third – he took second in the opening race after Turkington was excluded.
Sixth place in race two gave him pole for race three under the reverse grid rules and Onslow-Cole made the best start to lead the field into Riches and was never headed en-route to a first win in the series – despite the best efforts of both
Mat Jackson and
Jason Plato to find a way past.
"It's a great feeling," he admitted to
Crash.net Radio later in the day. "We have been chasing it from the word go and got close a few times earlier in the season with some second places and then another one earlier today. To finally get that first victory is such a great feeling and now I've got it out of the way, hopefully they'll keep coming.
"We have had the pace in the car all weekend and Team RAC have done a great job to put me out in such a good car. We were quick in qualifying and I was gutted not to get pole as Colin pulled a good lap out of the bag and it was great to lock-out the front row.
"The race was tough though. Jason has done a lot before and is certainly no fool. He has the calibre and knows the tricks but I just had to focus and treat it like any other car behind me and try and make the break. He tried to put me under pressure but I enjoyed it and it was good to race with him.
"It's very important to me to get this win; it's all you want to do as a race driver. This win means a lot and to be a BTCC winner in my rookie year is fantastic."
