Shaun Hollamby is today reflecting on what was his best race weekend of the season today in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship with two 15th and a 16th place finish at the high speed Snetterton circuit.

Hollamby started the weekend well with early signs that the Golf had improved in its competitiveness after the engine rebuild during the summer break. During free practice Shaun was able to set times which were within 2 seconds of Jason Plato’s Chevrolet Cruze but a rainy qualifying session meant that Shaun would have to settle for 17th on the grid. Shaun went on to say, “I was too conservative in the wet qualifying with an eye on not damaging the car for tomorrow’s races.”

Race day was a different story in terms of weather and that suited the AmD Milltek Racing.com Golf but an alternator failure on the grid meant that the team would have to start from the pitlane and Shaun could only manage a 16th place finish.

Race two was better for the team which saw Hollamby climb into 15th keeping the West Surrey Racing BMW behind him for much of the race. Hollamby went on to say, “It was good to be able to keep the West Surrey Racing car behind me for so long. They’re on a much bigger budget than us and won the Championship last year, so it’s a measure of how much progress we have made this season”.

A spin in the final race of the day cost the 44 year old driver from Kent but he was able to finish the race in 15th and give the team their best race weekend of the season.

This weekend was the first time that Shaun and the team had been able to start and finish all three races of the weekend without retiring or encountering problems which is a testament to the team and how much they’ve improved from the start of the season.

Shaun plays down his hopes next time out at Snetterton but will be looking for points later on this season. “Although we were still some 8-10mph slower than the fastest cars along the straight at Snetterton, we were around 12th-13th fastest through the second sector. This will hopefully make us more competitive at the more technical circuits like Knockhill and Brands Hatch later in the season”.

Photo Credit: Steven Knightley (www.sjkphotography.co.uk)

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.