Motorbase Performance team boss David Bartrum says he is hopeful of an improvement in fortune for driver Rob Collard as the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to Thruxton for the fourth round of the season.
While team-mate Steven Kane has enjoyed a solid start to the campaign on his BTCC debut, Collard has endured a difficult return to the series after a year out, with incidents at all three rounds held so far having hit his challenge.
"Rob really deserves a change of fortune," Bartrum said. "He's been driving strong, clean races, but he keeps getting hit off by others. Thruxton is his home track, and we're really confident that he will be right up there.
"An awful lot of our work in free practice on Saturday morning will be about tyre performance. That's always the story at
Thruxton. I think we can be right up there, and I really hope that Rob's fortunes change; he deserves some better luck."
Collard himself admits that the season to date hasn't gone as expected and he said he would be looking to qualify well at the quickest circuit on the calendar in an effort to break into the points scoring positions for only the second time this season.
"It's been a poor start by mine and the team's standards," he reflected, "but I think the
BMW as it showed in last year's final rounds is strong around Thruxton and provided no-one runs into me this time I think three strong results are very achievable.
"Qualifying has been our un-doing and we need to get on top of that. Saturday qualifying dictates your Sunday. We've got the pace and the know-how we just need a problem-free run and we will be inside that top ten. The first Independent win is very close."
