Race 2 report: Collard wins for Airwaves BMW

Sun 5th April 2009 Rob Collard scored a hugely popular victory for Airwaves BMW in the second race of the day at Brands Hatch. It was Collard’s first victory since winning the final round of 2005, also at Brands Hatch and the first in the BTCC for David Bartrum’s Motorbase Performance outfit.

Collard took the chequered flag after a carefully timed move on Colin Turkington, who had led the first 22 laps of the race. The Airwaves driver squeezed inside Turkington at the Druids hairpin and then eased away over the remaining two laps.

Race winner Collard said, “We made a fabulous start. I just sat behind Colin and worked with him to try and get away from the Vauxhalls. They were very, very hungry. I could see them catching us at one point, so I was very nervous they were going to get us, and I thought I didn’t want to start fighting with Colin yet. Then we came up to a backmarker and he really played into our favour, because Colin and I got past and Giovanardi didn’t and that opened up the gap.

“At that point I knew I had the speed to battle against Colin and his laps were going off in the last five laps. I just thought, ‘right, let’s try and force him into a mistake’, but with two to go he was becoming very defensive. So I thought I’d just return the compliment of what he did to me at Druids [in race one]. I was then able to slip past and pull away. It showed the raw speed of the car and the Airwaves BMW was just so good through the whole race.”

Turkington and Collard passed the pair of Vauxhall Vectras that occupied the front row of the grid as they headed away from the startline. Collard made one attempt to take the lead on the opening lap, but quickly settled into a rhythm behind Turkington. It was a BMW 1-2-3 in the early stages, as Stephen Jelley managed to get the second Team RAC car up into third off the line, despite starting down in seventh.

The three BMWs and two Vauxhalls broke away from the rest of the pack after a few laps, with the chasing pack being led by Adam Jones in the first of the Cartridge World Seat Leons. Jones was under pressure from Jason Plato, who in turn was trailed by Dan Eaves in the second Seat.

Lap eight brought a change for third, with Giovanardi edging out Jelley, who ran wide at Clearways and dropped to fifth.

Two drivers who started from the back of the grid, Gordon Shedden and Andy Jordan, both made quick progress through the pack in the first half of the race, climbing to seventh and ninth respectively by mid-race. Running in the mid-field same pack, the two Chevrolet Lacettis both suffered minor offs, losing them a couple of positions each.

At the front, there were no changes in the order, but third-placed Giovanardi was closing on Collard – until they came to lap Nick Leason in the diesel BMW 1 Series. Turkington and collard got past, but Giovanardi appeared to be slightly delayed. It then got worse for Giovanardi when his Vectra picked up a puncture, which caused him to run off the track. He pitted to change the tyre, but was down in 16th position when he rejoined.

In the closing stages of the race, Collard closed right up on Turkington and signalled his intentions by putting the nose of his car on the Northern Irishman’s rear bumper. With two laps remaining, Collard was closer than ever and took to the inside line through Druids, emerging in front of Turkington. It was a nervous couple of laps for the Airwaves BMW team, but Collard cruised home to take the team’s first BTCC victory.

Collard and Turkington were joined on the podium by VX Racing’s Matt Neal. Stephen Jelley finished fourth, ahead of the impressive Andy Jordan and Gordon Shedden. Adam Jones and Dan Eaves were seventh and eight for Cartridge World, with Jonathan Adam and Jason Plato completing the top ten.

It fell to Airwaves BMW team principal David Bartrum to draw the number to determine the reverse grid for race three. He picked out the number ten, which puts none other than Jason Plato on pole, but he will be joined on the front row by Jonny Adam in the second of the Airwaves cars.