END ON A HIGH
It’s been a busy end to the season for the Motorbase team, but it ended on a high with a double Indy win at Brands Hatch
Chilton claimed a P9 finish in race 1 of the weekend and had his eyes set on a top-5 finish for race 2. Sadly, those hopes were short lived when he innocently collected a piece of dislodged advertising hoarding, forcing him into the pits to remove it with an overheating engine. That put him on the back foot for race 3 too. “We obviously started the final race in 20th after the shenanigans of the hoarding hitting my car in race 2, which was extraordinarily bad luck,” says Tom, “Where we were at the time, I know we would have finished in 11th, which is what was pulled out on pole. I feel gutted we missed out on the reverse grid.”
But Tom pulled out an heroic drive in the last race of the day as the rain returned. Taking a gamble and switching to wets proved to be an inspired choice as the heavens opened, and Tom scythed his way up the order. “It was exciting; I was just carving through the field and feel sure we could have made the podium with just a few more laps,” Tom recalls.
Team mate Ollie Jackson had a weekend to forget at Silverstone, however; he battled away in the first two races and while the changing weather worked in Tom’s favour, it worked against Ollie. After making a stunning start on the greasy track, he was running as high as P5 and looking at podium spot. Opting to stay on slicks along with the majority of the front-runners, he regrettably tumbled down the order as the wet tyre runners came into play and eventually crossed the line frustrated in P19.
We then headed to our home track, Brands Hatch, for the season finale where we closed off a rollercoaster season of highs and lows with two Independent race wins, and an incredible five top-ten results. Tom’s something of an expert on the GP loop at
Brands and proved it with a superb drive from P19 to P3 on the first race of the day. Again, the weather played a crucial part in the results, and once again Tom and his crew made an inspired call to switch to wets, allowing Tom to carve up the order and grab the final podium spot right at the line.
He followed up with another visit to the podium in race 2, where P5 was the highest placed Independent driver; and was the lead car of the first ever Motorbase 1-2-3 finish in the Independents standings, with Ollie and BTCC veteran Michael Caine following closely behind. Tom’s final race of the season sadly ended prematurely when he looked to be in strong podium contention before a heavy rear-end shunt pitched him into a huge sideways slide into the gravel trap.
Ollie signed off his maiden season with the team in fine style, recording his second-best points-scoring weekend of the year with three top-ten finishes on his home circuit. Thanks also to an outstanding performance from Tom and Ollie’s stablemate, Michael Caine, (who claimed two further point-scoring finishes in the third Motorbase Performance Focus RS), we ended the 2019 campaign as the highest points-scoring Independent team of the weekend – a fitting tribute to conclude a successful three-year partnership with our sponsors, Shredded Wheat.
Now all eyes will be on the 2020 season, but first we’re going to take a well-earned break and reflect on the past 12 months before planning our attack on the BTCC for next year.