Tough time for Robertshaw
3:04pm Tuesday 15th April 2008
NORTH-East-based Robertshaw Racing had a tortuous time in the latest rounds of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at the Rockingham Speedway.
All of the teams cars suffered mechanical problems or damage through contact during the three races held at the Corby circuit.
In race one early on Sunday morning, Matt Allison brought one of the teams Chevrolet Lacetti home in 12th place after starting in 14th on the grid.
Harry Vaulkhard retired the teams sister car early on lap three with a misfiring engine, which would had the engine technicians stretched to correct before the next race an hour-and-a-half later.
Alan Taylor, in the teams Honda Integra, struggled throughout the race with a broken drive shaft, limping home in 21st place at the chequered flag.
In race two, things took a turn for the worse for Allison while battling with the BMW of Rob Collard.
Allison Matt made a clean move down the inside of Collard only to be swiped on the rear of the Chevrolet by the BMW as they exited the corner.
This resulted in substantial damage to the car and caused the rear suspension to collapse, damaging the oil coolers.
The resultant loss of oil from the engine forced Allison into instant retirement from the race and the withdrawal from the final outing of the day.
Meanwhile, Vaulkhard had a strong run from the back of the grid finishing 13th after starting from 23rd.
This came despite losing the clutch on his Chevrolet with five laps remaining.
Taylor made make a good start, climbing up to 17th place before the intervention of the safety car allowed the field to regroup, dropping him back down the order and a 23rd place finish.
In the final race of the day a threatened rain storm materialised as the cars lined up on the grid, forcing the race officials to delay the start which thwarted a brave move by the Robertshaw Team to fit wet tyres to Vaulkhards car.
With all of the grid now able to fit rain tyres the teams potential advantage disappeared.
Vaulkhard suffered in the spray with visibility and after a couple of excursions finished the race in 14th place.
With Taylor being forced to retire for the second time with an electrical failure on his Honda it ended what was a difficult weekend for the team.
The team will now regroup back at the workshops in Boldon and prepare for the next rounds of the championship at Donington Park in three weeks' time.