Round eight of the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone was marred by extremely poor luck for the Honda Racing team. Of the three Honda Racing drivers that lined up on the grid, only Tom Chilton managed to finish the race. Despite stalling on the start line and during a tyre change, he brought his Honda Civic Type R home in a brilliant sixth place.

Chilton’s first stall added vital seconds to what had been a really fast pit stop. The youngster from Surrey then clawed his way back through the field, only to suffer the same delay on his tyre stop. However, Chilton was undeterred and showed all his talent, along with a fair bit of youthful aggression to once more tear his way through the tightly packed field, passing cars one, or even two at a time. He took the final two places on the last lap and got a better line through Luffield to beat the Vauxhall of Gavin Pyper in a photo finish.

Unfortunately, Chilton’s Honda Racing team-mates, Alan Morrison and Matt Neal, did not have quite such a good time of it. Morrison was unceremoniously removed from the circuit in an incident at Becketts Corner. He had been challenging for the lead, but his race ended in the gravel with just one lap completed.

Neal suffered a technical problem while running in third and looking a safe bet to catch the leaders. A vibration at the front of his car forced him to pull into the pits on lap five and concluded his participation at Silverstone. However, he had already shown enough speed and skill to record the fastest lap of the race (1:28.896) and remained the only driver to put in a sub-1:29 lap under competition conditions.

Tom Chilton: “My clutch was dragging on the start line and I had to press the brake pedal to stop from rolling forward. I was desperately working all three pedals to hold it together, but the revs died just before the green light and the car stalled. The same thing caused trouble when I pitted for tyres and I stalled again.

“Out on the track things were great. The lads in the Honda Racing team worked really hard all weekend and the Honda Civic Type R was going really well. I had great fun carving through the field and if there was a prize for doing the most overtaking this weekend, I reckon I’d have won it!”

Alan Morrison: “The Honda Civic Type R was mega – absolutely on the money. That just makes it even more disappointing not to get a finish. We went into Becketts three abreast, but I had the inside line and was ahead of the other cars as we got to the turn-in. But just before I got turned, I felt contact from behind. The car came round on me and that was the end of my race.”

Matt Neal: “I got a good start and the car felt great, although I noticed a little vibration at the front immediately. At first I was worried that we had a loose wheel nut, but it seemed to be stable so I stayed out to race. After a few laps it got really bad and I had no choice but to pull in. It looks like it may have been a drive shaft failure.”