Croft was another weekend of ups and downs for the team, but both drivers fought valiantly all weekend claiming several top 10 finishes and valuable Championship points.
Saturday again began well with both drivers in the Top 10 and Top 5 respectively in FP1 and FP2. Qualifying was however to be a different matter, with the session being stopped twice for red flag incidents, unfortunately both drivers were out on track when the red flags were thrown and ultimately lost any opportunity to set a quick time. Dan, on his final lap of the session with literally seconds to spare, pulled together a stellar lap to qualify 9th with Flash ending up in 17th after struggling to get a clear lap.
Race 1 was a tale of two halves for the team. Dan was unfortunately involved in early contact from two other drivers which eventually ended his race in the barriers on lap 3. Flash drove a solid race and fought his way through the pack to finish in tenth.
Race 2 saw Flash continue his charge through the field, finishing up in 6th place. Dan, who was celebrating his 50th start in the BTCC, drove an amazing race starting from the back of the grid to come through to finish in 16th place.
Race 3 saw Flash drawn P2 on the reverse grid, surrounded by the quicker starting rear wheel drive cars of Turkington and Sutton, but he got an awesome start that saw him almost out drag Colin to the first corner, he eventually settled into 2nd place and that is where he eventually finished the race. Dan again dug deep in race 3 and rapidly moved through the field to score his first points of the day and finish up in a fantastic 9th position.
“I’ll take a 10th, a 6th and a 2nd” Flash commented “Qualifying is now so critical in this Championship, and I just literally ran out of laps with the red flags, it was wrong time, wrong place! I’m really pleased with my performance today, steadily moving up the field and grabbing myself a good haul of Championship points. My start in Race 3 was probably the best I have done all season and saw me challenging Colin into Turn one, so again chuffed with that result and a podium. We now move onto Silverstone this weekend, so no rest for the guys back at base and I’ll be giving it my all again to repay them for all their hard work!”
Daniel Rowbottom concluded “A frustrating weekend, qualifying I just managed to get my hot lap in with seconds of the session to spare! Race 1 was over before it started, I had contact from two drivers on separate corners that effectively ended my race on the 3rd lap! The car felt really strong in race two and I was able to scythe my way through the field, which then set me up well for the final race of the day. Race 3 I just got my head down and moved forward, my car doesn’t look so pretty after the weekend but finishing 9th in that final race just shows what we could have done had I not been taken out in race 1! Anyway, off to Silverstone now, where I’ll be pushing hard for points”
The team now have back-to-back weekends with Silverstone this weekend and plenty of work to do on the cars ready for the shakedown on Friday at circuit.
