Team Farécla driver Richard Marsh has enjoyed by far and away his best weekend of the 2006 BTCC season. The beautifully turned out yellow Peugeot 307 has finally come good with a trio of strong finishes well inside the top twenty in arguably the toughest fought meeting of the season.

In scenes more reminiscent of an F1 race than UK national event, a Silverstone BTCC record crowd of approaching 35,000 flocked in to witness proceedings, with some spectators having to queue for five or six miles to get into the circuit.

The first race of the day saw Richard stick to his game plan of keeping out of trouble – although the race itself was relatively incident free. Richard found himself in a battle with two of the Lexus and Mark Smith’s Alfa Romeo for much of the race but was able to hold them off, easing back towards the end of the race to ensure a finish. The Team Farécla Peugeot therefore wound up comfortably inside the top twenty - 17th place out of the 26 starters.

The BTCC competitors had obviously been saving themselves for Race two, which was incident packed from the start. Richard steered clear of all of the trouble, moving into the top ten overall and was running a highly creditable ninth when the race was eventually red-flagged after nine laps.

“It was pretty surreal, I was watching SEATS, Hondas and MGs flying off all around me and I just kept picking my way through them.”

The restart allowed some of the front runners - who had lost ground through being involved in incidents - to rejoin the race on an equal basis, and when the start lights went out, the Team Farécla Peugeot lost out to a couple of faster starting machines. Richard was eventually overhauled by one of the works SEATs, a couple of the very rapid MGs and Dave Pinkney’s Honda Integra to come home 12th overall and finish in the Independents Top Ten for the first time.

Race three saw almost all of those who didn’t finish race two repaired and out again for the final BTCC battle of the season. This meant that some of the Championship’s top works cars and drivers were starting behind Richard and they take no prisoners - as Richard found on the run into the Copse on the opening lap.

“It was really all done for me at the first corner,” recounts Richard. “I was in this huge gaggle of cars all looking for the same piece of track. One of the Lexus spun in front of me and I lost momentum. I was passed by three or four cars and I was never going to be able to make up the gap after that.”

Two safety car periods ensured that the racing remained close and Richard was locked in a tight battle with Mark Smith’s Alfa Romeo for most of the race. The Peugeot was noticeably quicker in the corners but lost out on the straights and finally had to give best by a few car lengths at the chequered flag. The Team Farécla driver finished in fourteenth overall and again in the Independents’ Top Ten.

Richard sums up the weekend.“All in all, this weekend has marked a real step forward for me and for the car. The team have been superb again and I hope that three decent finishes is some sort of repayment for all of the effort that they have put in – often with nothing, results-wise, to show for it. I’d like to thank them for all their hard work and also everyone who has supported me this season in the Team Farécla Peugeot. I’m already looking forward to next season and hopefully will soon be able to announce some details of our 2007 BTCC campaign.”