Aon set to make most of summer break

Team Aon team chief Mike Earle insists his outfit will be working flat out during the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship mid-season break following another tough weekend at Croft.

Tom Chilton managed to secure a points finish from the final race of the weekend after the team worked hard to repair his damaged car following his collision with Harry Vaulkhard in the opening race, with Chilton battling through to tenth place in treacherous wet conditions.

However, the sister car - in the hands of Tom Onslow-Cole after he received a late call-up to replace Alan Morrion - endured a miserable weekend, with the former Vauxhall man failing to secure a finish after a combination of engine problems and a run off track in the final race.

As has been the case throughout the season, a lack of engine power was again the achilles heel at Croft, but with a seven week gap in the calendar before racing resumes at Snetterton in August, the focus now will be to work on improving the performance of the car before the start of the second half of the campaign.

"We know what we have to do and there is a lot of work to be carried out,"? Earle said. "We simply did not have enough time to make the changes before Croft so we knew it would be tough to be competitive this weekend.

"We were very encouraged with how well the chassis is working now and that enabled Tom Chilton to race strongly and he showed in the first race that we have produced a great handling car. Obviously it was hugely disappointing for him and the team to have his race ended prematurely by someone else's mistake. In the last race he showed again how drivable the car is with his point scoring drive from the back of the grid in some pretty atrocious conditions.

"Tom Onslow-Cole fitted into the team very well and provided us with some useful additional feedback. We're sorry that reliability issues prevented him from getting much out of the races, but like Tom Chilton, he commented how good the Ford Focus is to drive and that when we can produce a better engine package, the car will be very competitive."