ROBERT Collard says he has to finish in the points in all three races at Croft this Sunday if he’s to keep up his challenge for this year’s HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Collard has certainly been one of the most exciting drivers to watch to date this season and has been able to achieve two race wins, at Brands Hatch and Donington Park.

But there have been dramas, too – he suffered a third ‘non-score’ in the most recent round at Oulton Park when his Airwaves BMW’s propshaft broke on its way to the starting grid. A stunning comeback drive from the back of the grid to fourth in race three went some way to rescuing his event but it was not enough to prevent him dropping from third to fifth in the Drivers’ standings.

Indeed, bear in mind that after his win at Donington he was third in the standings and 22 points adrift of series leader Matt Neal – now that gap is out to 33.

Hampshireman Collard said: “I’m really going to focus on finishing all three races at Croft in strong positions. What I can’t afford at Croft is not to score points, as the competition we are up against just now is so good they can punish you if you have a bad weekend.

“I lost a little bit of ground with a non-score in race two at Oulton, so I have to make it up at Croft so that I can continue to challenge for honours in the second half of the season.”

Notably, Collard is yet to achieve his first pole position in the BTCC but at Croft could be one of the favourites to grab the top spot on Sunday’s race one starting grid. His BMW is expected to really suit the circuit’s lay-out and, due to him having fallen to fifth in the standings, will go into qualifying with very little success ballast, just nine kgs in total.

Collard, who briefly led a race at the Darlington track last year, added: “Croft is very good circuit and I enjoy the challenge of going there. We had an eventful run at Croft last season, we showed we could be very quick and challenged for the podium, but didn’t come away with the points we deserved. I want to show how much we’ve progressed since then and better that this year.”