HOOK racer Rob Collard had another weekend to forget in the British Touring car Championship at Croft.
Qualifying brought nothing but frustration, with a couple of major offs to add to the problems, a total of five rad flags created a topsy-turvy grid with Collard down in 16th.
So this left the Hampshire driver in the middle of a pack of cars jostling for position and dragging mud out onto the racing line.
Unsighted, Collard had a few moments before hitting wet mud on the exit of Sunny corner, instantly losing the rear of his Power Maxed Racing Astra and hitting the bank hard.
The badly damaged car could not be moved, necessitating a safety car on lap seven.
An amazing effort saw car rebuilt for race two and from last Collard had a superb opening lap moving up eight places to 22nd, but after that found life a lot header and finished 19th.
For the final race of the day Collard gambled on slicks, but it was not until the final couple of laps that they came into their own so he finished 26th
Collard said: “We started yesterday morning hopeful, but it’s just gone downhill from there really. We were going well in race one, but hitting that mud just turned the day into a bit of a disaster.
"The spirit of the team to repair what was actually some pretty heavy damage has been incredible, and they did a sterling job.
"The gamble to run on slicks in Race 3 could’ve gone either way, but unfortunately didn’t pay off. Fingers crossed our luck changes at Oulton at the end of June.”
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