Tom Chilton says his focus is now firmly fixed on helping Vauxhall to reclaim the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship manufacturers' title after he secured a fifth podium finish of the season at
Snetterton.
That podium, allied to another win for team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi, allowed Vauxhall to stretch its lead in the standings in Norfolk, while VX Racing has also closed in on SEAT Sport UK in the teams' title.
The weekend itself proved to be a frustrating one for the 22-year-old as he was unable to build on his race one podium in the two races later in the day.
A good run in race one saw Chilton take the flag in fourth before race winner
Colin Turkington was excluded but in race two he could only finish eighth after contact with
Jason Plato tipped him into a spin at the end of the Revett Straight. With the top ten in race three proving to be evenly matched, Chilton had to settle for eighth again in the final race of the weekend.
"We managed to keep up with the BMWs in race one and that just proves how good our car was,” he said. “Both Shedden and I had a very good start and we both could have taken the lead going into the first corner. I went quicker by 0.2s every lap, but when I finally closed in I couldn't pull it off; it just would've ended in carnage!
"I had a bad start in race two, with too much wheel spin, but I was holding myself in a good position and I could have ended up on the podium again. I got spun by Jason Plato at 130mph in race two and things just didn't get better after that.
"I got a better start in the final race and made up two places but I had an incident when I lost four places in the space of a few seconds. There was so much happening in that race that I can't remember what exactly happened! It was a big disappointment.
“From now on, my goal is for Vauxhall to beat SEAT in the Manufacturers Championship. It's getting really tough now for everyone. This is a really hard championship.”
