Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher celebrated a return to the rostrum during rounds 19, 20 and 21 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, with Tom Chilton claiming his fourth podium of the season during an action-packed weekend of racing at Rockingham Speedway.

The seventh meeting of the season delivered mixed fortunes for the Motorbase-run squad. After a strong start for Chilton with a third placed podium and a further top ten finish, unfortunately James Cole suffered a difficult opening two races and the duo ended the weekend on a low note, recording DNFs for both Ford Focus RS machines after opening lap contact.

Starting from P7 for Sunday’s opening race, Chilton made a lightening start off the line charging up into 2^nd place as Cammish and Tordoff collided coming into the first hairpin – bringing out the first safety car of the day.  With the imminent threat of rain, Chilton held position on the restart from Sutton’s fast-charging Subaru. A defensive masterclass from the Gallagher-backed driver held off the reigning BTCC champion for an incredible 8 laps before he eventually succumbed, dropping back to take third at the flag and claim the team’s 4^th podium of the season.

Having trialled a new set-up on the #20 Focus in qualifying, Cole had a tough ask to move through the pack from P25. The Liverpool-backed racer did well to avoid the opening lap melee and survive the mid-field tussles to bring RS home relatively unscathed in P19.

Race two was a classic BTCC elbows-out scrap. Wrestling with 57kg of success ballast on-board, Chilton got bogged down off the line and struggled to keep pace with the lighter horde. After a big side-ways moment and contact on lap 5 that dropped the #3 Focus RS down the order, the 33 year-old battled his way back through to claim 10^th.

Cole endured his own fight in the mid-pack during the safety-car interrupted race. After contact on the opening lap dropped him back to 29^th, he managed to pilot the #20 Focus back through the tight pack to make up an impressive 10 places to take a credible 19^th as the flag dropped.

With the reversed grid draw slotting Chilton into pole position for the final race of the day, the odds looked good for a 2^nd podium visit of the day. Running on the less favourable Dunlop option hard-compound tyre – just as the intermittent rain returned – the Reigate-racer got a superb start off the line and had built up a decent gap to Simpson’s following Honda. Disaster struck however as they headed into the first hairpin with the #3 Focus sliding wide on the greasy track before being collected as it re-joined the track; causing race-ending damage and the halting the team’s hopes of a maiden race win of the season.

With numerous other cars caught out in the changeable weather conditions, Cole’s day was also brought to an abrupt early end. Having avoided the first turn chaos, the 29-year-old was ruled out of the running after suspension damage from a heavy side-ways shunt at the chicane – leaving Cole to rue what might have been from a very a challenging weekend.

In spite of the mixed results and missed opportunities, the weekend’s results have helped to improve the squad’s position in the series’ standings. Tom Chilton has moved up into 7^th place overall and 2^nd in the Independent Drivers Championship. Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher has also jumped up to 4^th in the overall Teams’ standings – as the highest placed Independent Team – and sits just 25 points off the leaders in the Independent Teams’ Championship, with 9 rounds remaining.

Speaking after the weekend, Chilton said: “We nearly had 2 more podiums this weekend. Sadly we only managed one in the end, but I guess it’s quite nice to be disappointed with a podium!

“I got a cracking start in the last race but then I got massive oversteer on the banking, went wide and then the contact ended our race. The team have done a great job this weekend. We’ve developed the car again and moved up in the Championship.

“I’m gutted for everybody that I didn’t get a 2^nd podium and that magical win.”

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