Tom Boardman came away from Brands Hatch with a point under his belt but could have easily been a lot more. The Special Tuning Racing SEAT Leon had shown a lot of promise throughout the weekend of the opening round of the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship but incidents would scupper Tom’s performance.

The SEAT, which has been fitted with a Lehmann prepared NGTC-turbo for the season, was certainly capable of putting the times in with Tom managing to set the fastest speeds through the traps for much of the weekend.

Tom was able to set the 8th fastest time in qualifying just 0.542s off the pole position time of Matt Neal with the times being closer than ever at the Kent circuit.

The Lancashire-based driver was up to as high as 6th during race one but a collision between himself and Gordon Shedden during the penultimate lap of the race would end in disaster for the 27-year old who was forced to retire with a broken steering arm.

The team would work around the clock to get the car ready for the second race of the day but it would be all over by the first corner as contact with the VW Golf of Tom Onslow-Cole would, again, break the steering arm and giving Tom his second DNF of the weekend.

Following Tom’s DNF he would start the final race of the day from the back of the grid but a spirited effort would see Tom up to 12th after the first 6 laps. Jordan would be forced to pit following a puncture and Alex MacDowall would be given a post-race penalty promoting Tom to 10th and giving him his first point of the season.

Speaking about his weekend Tom said, “We were very disappointed after the first two races. The third race I started from the back and I made up nine places, so that was pleasing. It’s not the best place for me finishing eleventh, but my engineer told me I was matching the lap times of the leaders at the end of the race, so that’s a good, positive indication for Donington.

“It’s just unfortunate that there was the coming together with Shedden in race one which disrupted the weekend, but we’ll come back even stronger for the next race,” he said.

Photo Credit: Pete Mainey (www.psmmotorsportimages.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.