Chilton wins from Onslow-Cole in first Silverstone race

Tweet

Sun 22nd August 2010 Tom Chilton won round 19 of the 2010 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, after passing his teammate Tom Onslow-Cole, who led the early stages of the first race at Silverstone.

The two Fords were running with additional restrictions on their LPG-turbo engines for the first time, but that was not enough to stop them winning comfortably in Sunday’s first race.

Onslow-Cole started from pole position and led away from the line, with Chilton close behind. The pair opened up a gap back to Jason Plato in third, who was under pressure from his teammate Alex MacDowall.

Chilton trailed Onslow-Cole without looking like making a serious bid for the lead, until lap 11. Onslow-Cole slowed at the end of the start-finish straight – which he later explained was due to missing a gear – and that was enough to let Chilton through into the lead.

There was another battle between teammates as MacDowall attempted to show that he’s a match for the more experienced Plato. Despite tapping the back of his teammate’s Cruze a couple of times, the youngster was left to settle for fourth.

It was a quiet race for Andrew Jordan in fifth. The Pirtek Racing driver closed on the back of MacDowall early on in the race, but his challenge fizzled out as the laps passed and he held station through to the end of the race.

The battle for sixth to tenth positions brought more action. WSR’s Rob Collard got the better of Matt Neal on the opening lap and then had to defend from the Honda Racing Team driver. Neal, in turn, came under pressure from Paul O’Neill, with Airwaves BMW pair Steven Kane and Mat Jackson just behind.

Kane squeezed past Neal on lap seven, but the double-champion fought back and regained the spot, not without contact, though. However, it was Kane who ultimately ended up ahead. Jackson became involved in the same squabble and ran wide at Becketts, dropping down the order as a result.

Gordon Shedden suffered a poor first lap, dropping down to 19th position, but eventually climbed back to 10th, securing the final points position.

James Nash ended the race in 11th, ahead of Tom Boardman and the recovering Jackson. In his first race in the YourRacingCar.com backed SEAT Leon, Phil Glew finished 14th.

Race winner Tom Chilton said: “I’m very, very happy with that, People have been saying a lot of things about our cars and now we’re running with a smaller restrictor and lower boost. I was really worried it would leave us a long way down, and there are five people faster than me on the straight now. It shows just how good this Ford Focus chassis is.”