BTCC Croft  19th - 20th June 2010

Boardman loses out in last lap thriller

The latest round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship took place at the picturesque Croft motor circuit in North Yorkshire this weekend, but it was to finish in disappointment for Lancastrian Tom Boardman when he was cruelly denied a first podium result in a nailbiting finish.

It was a frustrating start to the weekend for Boardman when a gearbox oil leak restricted his SEAT Leon to just six laps in the free practice sessions. This left him on the back foot in qualifying, and despite putting in a time that would made pole position last year, he would have to start race one from 13th on the grid.

Going into the first of the day’s races Boardman maintained his record of strong starts in the competition, and before the first lap was over he had brilliantly manouvered his way up the field into tenth. However, in what turned out to be the first of several skirmishes with the Airwaves BMW cars, Boardman was pushed out wide firstly on lap seven where he dropped three places and then again on lap 14 when he had to produce a brilliant piece of a control to keep the car on the track. This left him in 12th place where he was to end the race.

Race two again saw Boardman make a strong start from 12th on the grid, and by the second lap he was up into tenth place. By lap three he had moved up to seventh following an incident in the battle for midfield position, and from where he had to endure a difficult contest having to defend on every lap from the aggressive charge of Steven Kane’s BMW. A retirement further up the field then moved up Boardman up a position and despite briefly losing the spot to Kane, he brought the car home in sixth place and taking five points in his push for the Independent Drivers title.

 
Boardman’s sixth place handed the 26-year old second place in the starting line-up for the last race of the day when the reverse grid draw was made, but despite a good start he was unable to match the pace of the turbo-charged Vauxhall Vectra and the Ford Focus off the line, and he was also muscled out going into the second corner. He then moved up into third when Plato’s Chevrolet suffered a puncture, but spent the next seven laps under immense presure from the Honda Civic that had won the first 2 races of the day, and then the WSR BMW of Rob Collard who then took the position on lap ten. Collard however had to pit on lap 12, again elevating Boardman back into third. Fending off the challenge from Paul O’Neill in the Honda Integra was Boardman’s next challenge and there was some classic touring car action with both cars swapping positions and running side-by-side down the start-finish straight. But the tussle allowed the chasing pack to catch up and Boardman who had defended valiantly all the way to the last lap was then fiercely bumped wide through the fast left-right Esses again by Steven Kane who together with Chilton in the Ford Focus made their way past. Boardman’s luck then went from bad to worse when O’Neill sliding under braking into the final hairpin, cut to the inside of the corner, and robbing Boardman of a fifth place finish.