After a solid start to the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season at both
Brands Hatch and Rockingham, Motorbase Performance was left to wonder where its pace had gone following a difficult qualifying session at
Donington Park.
On a day when the rear-wheel drive brigade appeared to be on the back foot – with Team RAC driver
Colin Turkington the only one of the
BMW drivers to qualify inside the top ten – both Steven Kane and Rob Collard struggled during the half hour session.
Porsche Carrera Cup graduate Kane was the better off of the pair but will start the opening race from 16th on the grid as he proved unable to build on his eighth place on the grid at Brands Hatch and his eleventh at Rockingham last time out.
"I don't really know what the problem is," he said. "We haven't done a lot of testing so we tried some set-up changes out and we just went the wrong way. I'm disappointed because we were looking for a good result after the way we went at Brands Hatch and Rockingham.
"We are struggling a bit from the extra weight we have with the gearbox and this is an engine circuit - and we seem to be losing out. We have to work on the set-up because I love this place and have a few lap records, so we just need to work to get it right on race day."
Team-mate Collard meanwhile endured a more frustrating day as he was only able to qualify at the back of the field after a gearbox problem on his car meant he was only able to post a quickest time over eight seconds off the pace.
"We changed the gear ratios before qualifying and when I went out, there was an issue with the selector," he said. "There was no point carrying on, so I did three laps to qualify and then came in so we didn't damage the box or the engine.
"It was a minor issue but it was in the internals of the box so we couldn't sort it during the session, although the boys have now fixed it. We'll now look for a clean first race and try to get into the top twelve and go from there.
