The heat is on as BTCC reaches half way stage

Team RAC’s Colin Turkington and Rob Collard will line-up behind one another for the opening race of the fifth round of the 2006 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

With a soaring track temperature of 33ºC and his MG ZS, carrying 36kgs of success ballast, Colin secured 7th for the first of tomorrow’s three races with a time of 1m26.499s, reaching top speed of 140mph. Struggling to unlock the ultimate set-up for his car, changes will be made overnight in preparation for improved lap times. Colin explained: "The balance of the car (during qualifying) didn’t feel as good as it has done. I’m loosing front-end grip, which obviously affects the rear of the car. We made some set-up changes after the second free practice session but this didn’t work as well as we’d hoped. I’m sure we’ll be in good shape for tomorrow to keep the pressure on."


Posting a time of 1m26.800, which places him 9th on the grid, Rob Collard experienced similar problems to his team-mate. He added: "The car feels really good under braking but I’m loosing grip mid-exit on the corners. The car then feels pretty unsettled as I put the power on. It’s pretty frustrating as my best lap time came at the beginning of the day in the first practice session."

A pole position time of 1m.26.213 was set by part-time SEAT Sport UK driver James Thompson.

The fourth BTCC round at Croft will be transmitted on ITV on Sunday 16 July starting at 16:15hrs. The programme will include highlights from race one and two with race three being shown live in its entirety. Satellite viewers can watch all three races live on Motors TV commencing at 11:50hrs. Further information on programme replays can be found at www.teamrac.com