Tom Chilton admitted that conditions at
Croft were akin to being a 'duck on a lake' after a challenging fifth round of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.
The Team Halfords driver was one of a number of drivers to be caught out by the wet weather conditions that hit the North East track on race day, but bounced back strongly with a fine drive during the final race of the weekend to just miss what would have been a second podium finish of the campaign.
After qualifying eighth, Chilton had climbed into sixth place in race one before it was red-flagged and in worsening conditions, he then went off at Tower on the opening lap of the restart and was forced to retire.
Unfortunately for Chilton, he was forced to contend with tyre issues during the second race that left him down in 14th place, but in race three he produced a strong drive to take fourth place fending off the challenge of
Mat Jackson to secure his position.
"I had some hiccups in qualifying to be down in eighth place but the first race was the wettest race in the world! he said. It really does flood at the circuit when there is at a lot of rain, but I went from eighth to sixth and then at the restart I was like a duck on a lake and went floating straight on at Tower; I just aquaplaned off the circuit and there was nothing I could do.
In the second race, I climbed from 22nd to 14th but my tyres went off towards the end. I was down to the canvas on both of the fronts and I was lucky to even finish the race. I was glad I did finish as I got a cracking start in the final race and made up ten places to fourth which is a hell of a job to do as everyone is so quick on the grid. Mat was all over me in the closing laps and it took all my experience to get from 14th to fourth in that race and hold the position.
