Cole makes most of Snetterton test
SOUTHPORT motor racing star James Cole, put in the tin-top race day of his life with two top-10 drives and points scores in all three of his races at the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting staged at Snetterton last Sunday.
It was the perfect start to the second half of the season for Cole, 28, who after starting from a lowly 26th grid slot in race one, worked his Adrian Flux Subaru/ Team BMR BTCC Racing Team Subaru Levorg through to a 15th place finish in race one, followed by eighth in race two and a fifth place, from a reverse-grid drawn pole start, in the final race of the day.
It was an impressive showing from the former single-seater champion – Cole was winner of the British Formula Ford Championship in 2009 and runner-up in the National Class of the British Formula Three International Series in 2010 – and especially as in the final race of the day the organisers had reduced the boost on the Subarus.
As Cole tweeted: “Boost adjustments aside, I’m very happy with how we handled race three. Team did a great job to get me in that position after P26 in qualifying!”
In the first race, for Cole to make his way to 15th from his lowly 26th starting position was a highly encouraging start to the day.
Confidence was high in the Subaru camp before the start of race two and from his 15th place start he had shot up to 12th by the end of the first lap.
At half-distance he had made it into the top 10 and eventually, after a battling encounter with one of the all-time touring car greats Matt Neal, he overtook the three times BTCC champion and finished eighth.
For the second time in his BTCC career Cole started from pole after his number was drawn out for the third reversegrid race, presenting the Southport racer with an opportunity for further glory on the Norfolk track.
Unfortunately, after Sutton’s successes in the first two races, the organisers had decided to tweak the Subarus but Cole went on to complete a best-ever BTCC race in fifth, finishing just 7.7 seconds behind Gordon Shedden whose whose win put him back to the top of the drivers’ championship.
Cole said:”There’s always disappointment when you start on the front-row and not to convert it to a win, but given the bulletin that went out just before the race, we did a good job.”
Next stop in the 10-round 30-race BTCC series is at Knockhill in Scotland on the weekend of August 12-13 and Cole is confident of further success.
“It’s like a mini Croft and the car is good around Croft,” he declared.