Tom Boardman headed into the first race of the day at Snetterton last weekend in round six of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship on a high after securing his best qualifying position of the season but his weekend didn’t go as smoothly as he would have liked.

Starting from 10th on the grid, Tom was able to hold off the challenges from behind aswel as doing some overtaking of his own, and moving into 8th after just two laps to the expense of Paul O’Neill and the unfortunate Alex MacDowall who suffered a broken gear lever. Tom would hold out and gain valuable points for himself and the team.

Race two was a very different story for Tom. A hefty collision on lap one involving Paul O’Neil and John George resulted in retirement when they collided at the apex of the Bomb Hole. The team were then up against it to get the car ready for race three with the car suffering with severe damage to both the front and rear of the Club SEAT Leon.

Boardman spoke out about the race and said, “I got a fantastic start, getting cleanly passed Nash, before being tagged up the rear sent me sideways on to the grass, back on to the circuit and being wiped out by O’Neil, properly disappointing.”

The Special Tuning UK team had to replace the gearbox, two drive-shafts, suspension work and patching-up of the bodywork all in the hour before the third race, but a monumental effort from the team meant that Tom would start race three from the back of the grid.

Not to be deterred though, Boardman, fired up, made another outstanding start, taking three places in the first lap. Following a couple of skirmishes further up the field, he climbed up the order and in to twelfth by the third lap. Driving a car not handling to the best of its ability, it was an exceptional performance from Boardman and he maintained the pressure and his pace to finish the race in a remarkable eleventh place.

Tom went on to say, “The team worked really hard today to get me out for the third race and I’m very proud of them. Unfortunately we didn’t have the opportunity to demonstrate anything at the front of the field this weekend, but we showed what we’re capable of in the third race, even with the car not handling well. It has been a frustrating day, but we’ll come back stronger at Silverstone in two weeks time.”

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.