HAVING enjoyed mixed fortunes in the opening round of the BTCC championship at Brands Hatch a few weeks ago Hampshire driver Rob Collard looked at improving on his 10th place standing in the championship at the second meeting of the year at Donington Park Circuit - Writes Taco Jonkman.

Qualifying went well for Collard when he put his car 6th on the grid with a time of 1:13.139.

Having shown in the opening round that he can storm through the pack in the first few laps this put him in a very good position for the first of the three races on the Sunday.

In race one Collard have a brilliant start and making his way up to 4th over the opening laps and stayed in 4th until lap 13.

Throughout the race he was fighting of a strong challenge from Jack Goff, also in a BMW 1 series and Ashley Sutton in his MG6GT.

On Lap 14 Goff passed Collard followed by Sutton to finish the race a well earned 6th.

In race two Collard started from 6th on the grid and again he made a good start and ended up gaining three places to 3rd.

But he had to hold his nerve as the safety car came out twice in short order.

Rob kept his position and waited to make his move on Tom Ingram on lap 13 to gain 2nd and by lap 15 he pulled off a fantastic overtake on Mat Jackson to take the lead and win the race.

This was Collard's first visit to the podium this year and his 12th race win in BTCC.

With the reverse grid for race three of the day Collard was 8th on the grid with carrying the full ballast in his car it could prove to be a difficult race for him but again he put a good fight and managed to finish 4th.

With his win, 4th and 6th Rob Collard has now upto 4th place in the championship with 64 points only 14 points behind leader Matt Neal.

The next round of the BTCC is at Thruxton on the 7th and 8th of May.

In the Ginetta Junior Championship Robs’ son Jordan Collard also hoped to improve on his last meeting when he was taken out in the second race of the weekend.

Having qualified down the order in 18th he certainty had a tough challenge in front of him.

Saturdays race which was the 1st of the three races over the weekend didn't fare well for when he failed to complete asingle lap when he was pushed wide of the track and failed to rejoin.

The second race Jordan fared much better.

Starting from last on the grid Jordan fought his way up to 14th by the second lap and then worked his way up to 12 over the following laps, by lap 7 he managed to gain another position to 11th where he finished at the end of the race.

On Sunday Jordan took his place on the grid again and in the first part of the race he cut his way through the field when on lap 7 electrical gremlins struck and dropped him down the order and eventually forced his retirement.

The poor results leave him in 18th place with 21 points.