This season has been far from easy for West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard. The championship contender has had a difficult time in qualifying recently, but has more than made up for his poor starting positions during the race.
Rob Collard’s championship points this season
Looking back now, a twelfth place in qualifying at Brands Hatch wasn’t too bad for Collard, but it wasn’t going to be the easiest race of his career. Still, the Hampshire stormed off of the line, managing to climb up to sixth during the race. Race two looked to be going slightly better when Collard managed to get up to second and was challenging for the lead when he span and dropped back down the field, and outside of the points. It was going to be another race like the first for Collard at the end of the day, who managed to get back up into sixth.
That was only weekend one though. There would be plenty more…
After another sixth place in the first race at Donington Park, Rob Collard became the fifth driver to take a race win this season. The WSR driver made another fantastic start to get up to third, before picking off the next two drivers to take the race win. Collard went on to take a fourth in the final race of the weekend, taking 44 points from the race.
The performance put Collard towards the top of the championship and, even in these early stages, talk of a championship contender was beginning. The next round at Thruxton wasn’t spectacular, but a second place and two more six places gave a decent points haul.
Oulton Park was a weekend to forget for Collard. A spin in race one and a puncture in race two meant the Hampshire driver pulled up to his twenty fifth place starting position for race three with only a single point from a fastest lap that weekend. Collard was able to recover – and this time without a disaster ruining that recovery – to take another sixth place, which kept him third in the championship, but it was a way off of his team mate up at the top of the standings.
Strong recoveries have been Collard’s theme this season. What he’s lacked in qualifying he’s more than made up for – 9 times out of 10 – in races. Collard took his second win of the season at Croft, and has only one retirement so far this season.
Most of Collard’s performances see him finish at the sharp end of the field and, if his qualifying had been a little better, he would be going into Brands with a lot more points.
A break down of Collard’s finishes this season
As it is, Collard heads to the final round of the season seventeen points behind the championship leader – his team mate. Collard’s only not met that 17 point target twice this season: Oulton Park and Knockhill (where he was forced to retire from one of the races). So he’s more than in with a shot at the title.
That said, it’s not just about closing the gap. Of the twenty seven races this season, Sam Tordoff has outscored Collard on thirteen occasions. They’re a very evenly matched pair but Collard will probably be hoping that won’t be the case at Brands Hatch.
It isn’t just Tordoff Collard will have to watch out for. Both Honda drivers are also above him in the title fight, whilst the Motorbase duo and two of the four Subaru drivers aren’t too far behind him.
Image credit: Caroline Rhea
