Motorbase Performance’s Matt Allison put on a strong show in front of hundreds of friends, family and sponsors at his home rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton this weekend. However, despite consistent running over the course of the three races, Allison and teammate Tom Ferrier were left with just a handful of points to show for their efforts.

Allison, from Norwich, was hoping to serve up a treat for his supporters on home ground. The signs were positive in Saturday’s free practice sessions when he was within six tenths of a second of the fastest laptime, but Sunday’s races failed to deliver any real reward for the pace shown by both Motorbase Performance drivers.

Starting 11th and 14th on the grid respectively for the first race of the weekend, Allison and Ferrier steered clear of trouble in the early stages, with Allison was running in tenth position when he was tagged by the works SEAT Leon of championship leader Jason Plato. It was enough to send the Motorbase Performance driver into a spin at the Russell chicane, dropping him down through the order. He was able to recover to finish 13th. For Tom Ferrier, it was a strong run through to finish in ninth position and pick up his first championship points in just his second outing of the year for the team.

Race two brought Allison’s best result of the weekend, despite the best efforts of some of his fellow drivers. Avoiding the first lap shunt that brought out the safety car was fortunate, but being hit from behind by a car that failed to slow down for the yellow flags was less so. Luckily, the contact from Richard Marsh’s Alfa Romeo was not race threatening for Allison and he was able to go on to finish tenth. Unfortunately, a broken driveshaft in the final race of the day meant there was to be no fairytale finish for the home favourite.

Matt Allison said, “We were only half a second off in qualifying, like we were at Donington, but Snetterton is a power circuit and I think we just didn’t have the horsepower today. It was going ok in the first race until Plato used me as a brake at the final corner. After that, if you have a bad first race, you’re always on the back foot.

“It was really close in the second race. I think if I’d been fourth or fifth then I would have been able to hold it. It was hard to overtake because everybody was so close out there. We are moving forward though. At the start of the year we were a second off the leading group and now we’re half a second off. It’s that final half a second that makes all the difference though.

“It’s been a mixed weekend, but all of my guests have had a good day. We’ll go back to Brands Hatch next and see what we can do there!”

For Ferrier, the best result of the weekend was that ninth position in race one. Forced to retire in race two, he went on to finish the final race of the day in 12th spot.

Tom Ferrier said, “It’s been frustrating. We’ve had a few problems over the weekend but the pace seems to be there in the dry, just like it was at Donington. We just need to get some trouble-free running and we might be able to show what we can do.”

Motorbase Performance Team Principal David Bartrum said, “We’ve had good pace this weekend, it’s just a shame that we haven’t been able to get much of a clear run. I’m looking forward to Brands. I know it’s not the ideal track for these cars, but it’s our home track and we’re much closer to the front than the last time we were there.”