HAVING watched both of his team-mates claim race wins, Hook touring car driver Rob Collard admits that he was feeling the pressure going into the final race at Croft on Sunday.

The British Touring Car Championship visited North Yorkshire last weekend, with Collard’s West Surrey Racing team enjoying a fantastic meeting.

The BMW 125i M Sport drivers secured the first 1-2-3 finish by any team in six years during the opening race, with Collard finishing third behind team-mates Andy Priaulx and Sam Tordoff.

Tordoff then went on to win race two, with Collard finishing sixth, but the reverse grid draw was kind to the Hook racer, putting him on pole for race three.

He lost the lead to championship leader Gordon Shedden on the first lap of the final race, but he was able to grab the place back later, eventually finishing seven seconds clear to complete a clean sweep of race wins for the team.

Collard said: “There are times when you have to deliver.

“Having seen both of my team-mates win already, anything other than a win would not really have been acceptable in that last race.

“Croft is a great circuit and the BMW excels there, so it was a great weekend all round.

“We had a good qualifying session and that set us up for the weekend.

“It was brilliant to be part of a 1-2-3 for the team because they are so rare.

“Race two was a bruising encounter and then in the final race, it was just a case of waiting for Shedden’s tyres to go off, which they did.”

Having qualified fourth for the first race, Collard overtook the Honda of championship leader Shedden into the first corner, before holding on to follow team-mates Priaulx and Tordoff all the way to the line.

The Hook racer found himself sixth on the grid for race two and while he got himself up to fifth at one stage, an epic battle with Shedden ended with the Honda man getting ahead, so Collard had to settle for sixth.

The result leaves Collard sitting eighth in the drivers’ championship heading into a six-week summer break.

The championship will get back under way at Snetterton, Norfolk, in early August.