Barrow-Upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell bounced back from an accident in practice for the latest rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Croft to reward his Team AllAboutProperty.com squad with two finishes on race day.

Although unable to pick up his first outright points of the season, Martyn was also able to maintain his top ten placing in the Independents’ championship standings on a weekend where his team was forced to show all its fighting spirit to get him on the grid.

An accident during the first free practice session on Saturday morning left the BMW 320i in a somewhat second hand state, but the team worked hard to not only repair the damage, but also get Martyn out on track in time for the afternoon qualifying session. Unfortunately, the driveshaft broke on his out lap – a legacy of the earlier accident – but the team again worked hard to replace the part and allow Martyn to get back into the session to set a time.

From 22nd on the grid for the opening race, a fine start saw Martyn make up at least four places and a solid run saw him take the flag in 14th place having run out of laps to try and catch Turkish driver Erkut. Yet again however, Martyn found himself in the wars in race two when contact from the Honda of John George saw the BMW fired off into the crops surrounding the circuit – with the car sporting some extra greenery when it emerged back onto the race track. Despite the off, Martyn was able to take the flag in twelfth place, although a high attrition rate meant that possible points had been lost.

In the final race, Martyn was forced to retire after going off into the gravel at the opening corner, but he refused to be too down despite a tough weekend on track.

“All things considered after what happened to us on Saturday, when the car was nearly on its side, we can’t be too disappointed with two finishes,” he said. “The car wasn’t as good as it should have been but we knew that was the case on Sunday morning and there are other people who have had worse luck than me this weekend.

“I made a cracking start in the first race but flat spotted my front tyres trying to catch Erkut so the car was hard to drive, but to go from 22nd on the grid to 14th was ok. In the second race I finished twelfth but it was unlucky as John George gave me a smack going through the Jim Clark Esses and I ended up in the corn. I managed to get back out of the field and got a big cheer but I feel we were robbed a little bit there. John came and apologised afterwards but these things happen and you can’t change them.

“In the final race I decided to keep towards the pit wall at the start to let the quicker cars past and I was on the outside and got a tap from the back. I straightened the wheels to try and run across the gravel but the car dug in and the gravel did its job. I suppose it sums the weekend up really but I’m not feeling down. We know we have the pace, we just need to get the car straight and go to Oulton Park with a clear head.”