Alan Taylor endured a baptism of fire on his debut in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship after an accident in qualifying left him with three wheels on his Robertshaw Racing Honda Integra.
The Clio Cup graduate had made steady progress during the two free practice sessions at the wheel of the ex-Sibsport car and headed into qualifying eager to make further steps forward. However, after completing just one timed lap, Taylor was left with three wheels on his wagon following contact with Tom Chilton at the bottom of SEAT Curve.
The day started well, he reflected. We took it steady to start with to get used to the car as we'd only done 30 laps at
Croft in the week and it's a circuit we don't know with the car; it's not at all like the Clio! I was quite pleased with the first session and we were getting on the pace. The second session we did a lot of tyre changes and didn't get chance to do a hot lap but it wasn't too bad I was pleased up to that point!
In qualifying, we came in after the third lap to cross tyres and went out to try and get some times in. Coming out of the pits there were a couple of cars with their lights on that were on flyers so I tucked in to the left down Duffus to keep out of the way. We did it for two of them but Mr Chilton smacked me up the back, took off my wheel and half the suspension so I wasn't over chuffed with that.
Taylor added that he wasn't aiming to just sit back and watch from the rear on race day, with his focus being on trying to secure at least one point from his first weekend in the BTCC.
The common sense factor says sit there and keep out of trouble, but I'll be trying, he said. I can easily say one thing now but when the racing head goes on, I'll be competing into the first corner.
The realistic aim is to finish the race and get the car through it. I'm a racer and I want to compete so I'll be going for it I want to be in the top 15 and in the top ten if possible.
