Champagne end to Oulton Park weekend

Mon 7th June 2010 James Nash finished his latest race weekend in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship on a champagne high after scoring his first podium of the season.

After a fast paced Saturday qualifying session resulting in James claiming 10th spot on the Oulton Park grid, he put in a series of three solid and fast laps to move from 10th to ninth in a seesaw first race, first moving up as high as seventh before being forced wide by another driver and dropping back to ninth.

Race two saw more of the same - a bit of bumping and barging, some good racing and progress up to finish seventh. The 'luck of the draw' grid ballot plucked number nine out of the hat, flipping the race two finishers round from ninth forwards, putting James third on the grid for the final race.

Race three turned into a tense, close battle with James both gaining and losing places during the race, coping well with restarting from two safety car periods caused by incidents and battling through to a very well deserved and hard earned third place on the podium alongside race winner and double BTCC Champion Matt Neal and experienced race-winner Steven Kane.

James commented: "What a great way to finish the weekend! Good solid progress, we always moved forwards and we managed to reward the team, sponsors and my family with a trophy and champagne. I feel I’m really starting to gel with the car and the team, and I think we can start to look forward to more podiums, thank you to everybody."